Adoption: New Code DC
by Professor Image
Summary: Up for Adoption.


For a variety of reasons I now find myself at an impasse. I feel as if I've come as far as my meager writing skills is capable, and loathe to continue when I don't feel I can personally give a story one hundred percent, I've decided to leave the fates of my many works of fiction to other, more capable authors.

Anyone and everyone are allowed to adopt my stories. There are no restrictions, no limitations. Write a continuation, if it so pleases you, or a rewrite, or even completely desiccate the story if you wish. It doesn't matter to me. If you think you can do better, just prove it. Write.

Ta.

Professor Image.

Disclaimer: I do NOT own Code Geass, DC Comics, Superman, Supergirl, or any other unoriginal materials included herein. Code Geass is owned by Sunrise and Bandai (now defunct), and DC comics is owned by Warner Bros Entertainment. I have made no monetary gain off this work of fiction as I wrote it with only entertainment purposes in mind. Please do not sue.

Summary: The Emerald glow illuminated the derelict ship; the aristocratic features of a haunting beauty suspended in the false death. Guilt welled up in his heart. For this girl, at the very least he would save.

Code DC:

Kara Zor-El of Argo

Chapter I

Hard to See

XXX

The engines were shrieking in Kara's ears, even while she pulled hard on the controls to send her Screamer-class ship spinning. Kara could almost feel the heat of the emerald energy that arched overhead, and it took all her considerable skill to outmaneuver her pursuers while keeping a constant eye on the battlefield.

"_-you like that, you freaks!_" Kara's radio was alive with wild chatter, as her troops desperately defended themselves from the seemingly endless horde of invaders. Kara punched her controls down, taking a hard spin, and leveled her crosshairs on her pursuer.

"Keep calm," whispered Kara, her eyes narrowed as she pulled the trigger. A blast of super-heated plasma pulsed from her ship's anti-air rifle, punching a gory hole through the glowing alien. It gave a strangled wail, and promptly fell from the sky.

Kara observed the ugly sight of Krypton's early morning skies, grim faced at the sight of gore and energy burns that now spotted the mountains surrounding the city of Kandor. It was a frantic battle, the corps cutting a path through Kara's forces. Listening to the chatter over her radio, Kara tried to plot a battle plan to end the melee.

"_- off our planet!_" the familiar voice of Vala broke Kara from her thoughts. The young Kryptonain woman was Kara's second in command, and leader of the air-artillery unit. Kara's eyes roamed the battlefield, her cockpits heads-up-display picking out friend from foe until she caught sight of Vala's unique call sign and registration number. Lady-Phantom was more than a codename, for the ship that the girl piloted was an archaic, but useful Whisper-class ship, utilizing an updated cloaking system. However, in this battle, it was only Vala's nimble piloting and her cloak that allowed her to evade and return fire so easily.

The radio thrummed with life, and a strong, feminine voice shouted, "Clear!"

From below, the booming resonation of heavy cannon split the night, and a couple of meters away a cluster of the emerald invaders exploded in a shower of gore, followed by the next row of Lanterns, and the next and the next. No more than a bloody mist now, the ranks of alien warriors opened up in a massive hole. Seconds after the red mist fell, however, more invaders began to pour down from the heavens, emerald archs of energy sweeping through Kara's troops and stealing life wherever they strayed.

More cannon fire rained into the ranks of alien invaders, hampered only by the emerald shields that the warriors hastily erected to defend themselves. Kara narrowed her eyes, absently stroking the keys on her onboard computer while her mind worked furiously to find a solution to the problem before her without needlessly sacrificing valuable Kryptonain lives. A flicker of motion in her peripheral vision drew her attention, and a burst of imagination took root in her mind.

Kara depressed the button on her controls that would start a com-channel with her troops, sending her message to everyone in the hopes of rallying them behind her.

"All air units: head to the Scarlet Peaks. All ground units: push the enemy towards the peaks." Kara gave the order, pulling away enough to get a clear view of the battlefield. She waited; then her radio burst with life.

"_Lady-Phantom: Roger, ma'am_," Vala said quickly over the radio. Kara could see that the ace pilot was maneuvering her troops towards the mountains without hesitation.

"_Countess Brave: Roger, ma'am_," was succeeded, the strong voice of Mala, Vala's bigger and meaner sister calling over the link. In charge of the infantry, Mala commanded an intimidating Howler, a Kryptonain plasma tank that could punch holes in mountains.

"Roger," Kara stated over the coms, moving her controls to take her into the thicket of Screamers and Whispers that she commanded, "Push them in."

Kara carefully registered the noise of cannon fire. The successive booms that heralded Mala's part in the ploy slowly drifted and softened the further Kara pulled her air troops away. Boxed in by cannon fire, and mistaking the ploy as a retreat, the Lanterns pushed into the mountains, following the trails that Kara's troops left behind.

Seeing that the ploy was working, Kara radioed her troops.

"All artillery support, pull ahead into the cannon; Lady-Phantom, your with me." Kara gave her orders, and broke away from the mass of ships. Vala followed her as they both moved to the mountain's summit, which would be the path that the Lanterns took. Kara placed several markers on her HUD and sent the coordinates to her second.

"Lady-Phantom, place Thermal Mines on the places that I've marked. Hurry, because we won't be alone long…" Kara finally stopped transmitting and went about her own work, placing her mines on all the markers that she had designated. Vala followed her example.

They worked in silent tandem, utilizing the ground level robotic arms on the underside of their ships, and soon they were finished. They proceeded back to the canyon, where the troops were waiting, and watched as the emerald cloud of Lanterns pushed towards the canyon, slowly coming into range of the summit. When they had proceeded to the target point, Kara depressed her detonator and watched as the skyline brightened.

A great ball of fire erupted from the mountaintop, as the peaks literally exploded. The denotation had done its job, succeeding in igniting the methane contained in the mountains surrounding the city of Kandor. The super blast of heat that passed overhead was no more than a light show for her troops, since they were safely contained in the canyon. Kara felt a proud smile stretching her lips as she listened to the sudden quiet that engulfed the mountaintop.

The com flickered with quiet jubilations, but Kara stayed unerringly quiet, filled with a sudden sense of trepidation even as she observed the burnt hillside before her. Mala's voice crackled over the radio then, interrupting her worried thoughts.

"_I don't know what you did, ma'am, but whatever it was it has thinned the invaders _way _down. It should be easy for us to mop up,_" at Mala's words rejoices of "_finally_" were shared over the coms. An enormous explosion shook the Scarlet Peaks' mountaintops, interrupting everyone's quiet celebrations. Kara listened morbidly as Mala screamed in panic into her com.

"_- shit, what the fuck is going on? HOW THE HELL COULD SOMETHING LIKE THAT EXIST ON -" _the rest was lost on them, just white noise filling the com. Kara frowned, and tried hailing her third.

"Countess Brave; come in!" Kara ordered, listening in quiet, but not receiving a returning answer. She brought up her HUD to display the map of Kandor, but did not see any friendly signatures displayed on the map. What was more worrying was that the display was showing a large increase in electromagnetism and gravity in the air.

"_Colonel, Ma'am?" _Vala's voice was quiet with hopelessness and mourning, for there was no question what had just occurred. As unlikely as it was, Kara did not want to break the silence to admit the truth: the infantry and Mala by that extent was gone.

Kara frowned.

"Lady-Phantom," Kara said into her com, feeling like a weight was now riding on her shoulders, greater than any she had thus far known. "Gather the troops and pull back. Sphinx, Willow, Husk, you're with me," Kara ordered into the com, meanwhile moving her hands on the controls to pilot her ship towards Kandor. "We'll need to recon before deciding to leave."

"Yes, ma'am!" this accompanied her orders.

Kara led her unit into the hills underneath the Scarlet Peaks, keeping a cautious eye out for hostiles. Sphinx and Husk kept a close eye on their colonel, while Willow took point. They eventually passed over the last peak, and stopped dead.

"_By Roa,_" the identity of whoever uttered the prayer was lost to Kara, as morbidly fascinated as she was by the sight before her.

Kandor was gone, the whole perimeter of where it had once lain now almost completely erased. A massive hole in the ground now lay where the city once stood. Like someone had carved a perfect sphere out of the planet. It stretched all the way to the very edges of the mountains, where the slopes began. Kara watched in horror as the perimeter continued to expand, the hole ripping chunks out of the planet by the kilometer. Kara knew what this was, which was confirmed by the dark sphere that existed in the center of the hole, growing at a phenomenal rate. Even as they watched, the skies were darkening, succumbing to the spatial distortion. Ripped from their home, the chunks of matter circled the dark spot until finally sinking into its surface and disappearing. Kara knew what this was…

…a black hole…

Suspended over the anomaly was a large ship that was intimately familiar to Kara. It was her father's ship: the Equinox. It was a research and exploration ship, used to terraform hundreds of worlds. It also housed some of her father's most obscure experiments, even acting as the mainframe for the Brain Interactive Construct…but why was it here?

Caution entered Kara's mind, as her eyes took in the widening hole. She started her com, and radioed her unit urgently.

"Sphinx, Willow, Husk, we need to leave, now." She ordered.

"_Yes, ma'am_," they agreed, but immediately turning presented them another problem.

"_Whoa, what's going on?_" Willow wondered aloud, as they could barely inch away from the hole in the planet. Even without her ship's warning klaxons, Kara knew it was hopeless. The gravity and electromagnetic distortions in the air that her ship was picking up showed that they would not be moving anytime soon.

"_We can't give up, can we, Colonel?" _Husk's voice came over the com link. Kara closed her eyes and sat back in her seat, not even attempting to try to fight their fate. Her unit noticed.

"_COLONEL," _Sphinx shouted urgently. Kara rubbed at her eyes tiredly.

"It's a black hole," Kara intoned simply. Kara liked to think that she was a realistic soldier. She could deal with the invasion of the Lanterns, because there was always a chance that Krypton and its people could somehow survive. However, a Black Hole was beyond their ability to stop. Besides, she was immensely tired from the war itself, and a moment of weakness prevented her from taking the helm and fighting back. Even a warrior queen was not immune to their emotions completely. Then she relaxed and tried to make peace with her life, wishing at the same time that so many things in her life had gone differently…if only…

A shockwave interrupted whatever her unit was going to say, and Kara hit her console hard as her ship went sailing. The screams of her soldiers followed her, the sounds of them dying, cursing and raging at her…dragged into the gravity well. Kara's head smashed into her console as her Screamer hit the mountainside solidly, and she had to shake her head to concentrate. For a moment, everything was still, Kara holding her body tense as her guilty thoughts circled inside her mind.

"_-you alright, Kara?"_ a sophisticated voice interrupted her pain. Kara grasped blindly at her console, and hit the coms.

"F-father?" she stumbled, blinking against the pain. Panicked laughter replied to her question.

"_-no time for that – construct got away – my fault,"_ her father's garbled message somehow made it through her mind. Kara blinked as she focused on the console, turning her ship to look in the direction of Kandor once more.

"What?" Kara wondered over the com. More panicked laughter.

The Equinox suddenly heaved, and from the side of the massive ship a smaller ship rushed into the air…an escape pod. Kara's eyes narrowed as she watched the fleeing ship, wondering…

"_-sorry, Kara. There's so – you have to make it back – Argo – Jor-El will know what to do_," Kara listened to her father's last message, eyes widening as she watched the giant ship descending towards the black hole. "_Goodbye_," was the last word spoken, clear and loud. Then the ship disappeared, compressing as it sank into the anomaly.

Kara did not think, reacting on instinct and moving her ship backward and away from the Quantum Anomaly. Never having been close with the man, Kara did not immediately grieve his passing. It was easier to rationalize when one was already at a certain emotional distance from a person. Still, Kara could not shake the feeling that her father had been trying to tell her something important…or that he had sacrificed himself for her safety. Now she had the time and intention of finding some way to save her soldiers, though how she would was unknown. Her father thought Jor-El had the answers, so she intended to find him.

First, she needed to collect the few of her soldiers that would wish to continue the fight, and then she would turn around and make for Argo. As embattled as it was with the Green Lantern Corps, Kara knew that making her way into her birth city would be trying. Locked in a hopeless battle for survival, Kara's home planet of Krypton did not realize that they were already doomed. Kara wanted to believe her father, because if Jor-El could not save them then no one could…

Kara turned her ship around, daring to hope for the first time in ages.

To Be Continued…

AN: So how did everyone like the first big revelation of the Code DC universe?

There's more about the DC mythos that are going to be turned on their head, but the biggest at this point and the progression of Earth's history lies in Krypton's destruction and the events that brought it into existence.

The reason why this chapter is so short is that I intended for this story to be only a minor piece in the Code DC mythos. There will be three chapters in total, and most will be about this length. Following the completion of this story, I will finally begin work on Lal-Zod, Akito, and my other stories.

In addition, I am finally going to post the results for the 20th position in Lelouch's harem. Check it out on my profile.

As always, drop a review and give me your thoughts.

Ta.

Professor Image.

Disclaimer: I do NOT own Code Geass, DC Comics, Superman, Supergirl, or any other unoriginal materials included herein. Funimation and Sunrise own the Code Geass franchise, while Warner Bros. Entertainment owns DC. I have made no monetary gain off this work of fiction as I wrote it with only entertainment purposes in mind. Please do not sue.

Summary: The Emerald glow illuminated the derelict ship; the aristocratic features of a haunting beauty suspended in the false death. Guilt welled up in his heart. For this girl, at the very least he would save.

Code DC:

Kara Zor-El of Argo

Chapter II

The Bleeding

XXX

Kara found her troops waiting for her back in the canyon, each soldier unable to contain their uneasiness. The moment her ship's call sign appeared in the crevice brought the attention of all her soldiers. Vala made her way towards her leader.

"Colonel," Vala's voice came over the radio, hesitant to ask what was on the minds of everyone. Instead, Vala's Whisper-Class ship rose to look across the mountaintops, uncomprehending. "Where are the others?"

"I'm sorry," Kara began, gripping the controls for her ship tightly as her self-loathing and guilt welled up in her breast. "I wasn't able to save them…"

A tremor passed over the small army, each soldier trying to come to grips with this fact. Murmurs of alarm and regret filled the radio line. Vala finally spoke.

"Ma'am, what happened?"

Kara blinked away the screams of her comrades, focusing on the present. She took a breath and let it out to steady herself.

"Someone has created a black hole… on Krypton…" shock passed over the whole platoon of soldiers, some questioning what she said, but most falling into a pit of despair.

"Ma'am," Vala asked. There was a pause as the young woman tried to decide what to say, before venturing, "Is there anything we can do?"

Kara shook herself, grimly setting her shoulders. "Yes," she said, narrowing her eyes, "Before his death, Councilmen Zor-El sent me a message. He told me to seek Jor-El in Argo. Jor-El is the only one that can save us now…" she trailed off. Gasps of denial and hopelessness followed this statement. Kara closed her eyes.

"Silence," Vala hissed, and the radio chatter quieted. Kara opened her eyes, looking through her view screen at her second's stealth jet. "Colonel, ma'am, are you certain that Jor-El can save the people of Krypton?" Kara smiled. Her mind swirled with memories of Jor-El, her uncle, and the primary scientist of Krypton's whose exploits were already legendary amongst its people.

"If there is anyone who can, then it must be Jor-El," she stated. A silence pressed upon the troops, before Vala's voice came over the com-links.

"Alright, you heard the woman, we're heading to Argo," shock passed over the small army of soldiers, most questioning their sanity to try and make their way into the overrun sister city of Kandor. Argo had been one of the first cities that the Lanterns invaded, and the war within its gates was still occurring to this very day. A journey to the city of Argo was utter suicide. How and why Jor-El entered the city was a mystery that Kara did not feel would be answered any time soon.

"Madness!" someone exclaimed over the radio, followed by murmurs of agreement.

"We are already doomed! You want us to die sooner!" Someone else shouted.

"If we don't make our way to Argo," Kara stated, silencing the chatter, "we are already doomed. However, if by some miracle we are able to make our way inside the city's gates and find Jor-El, we could very well be Krypton's last hope." Kara took a breath. "If you want to sit on your lolls and pretend that we aren't going to die then that is fine. However, if you actually want to _do something_ about it then quit your bitching and come with me! You are the proud soldiers of Krypton, are you not! Stand tall and do not hesitant! You must strike without mercy or remorse! This may be our last day, but will you die whimpering and alone, or will you stand with your brothers and sisters and face your end with a smile and a grenade?" Kara's voice rose as she spoke to her troops. When she was finished, she was nearly shouting. Silence passed over the battalion, before Kara spoke up once more. "Who is with me?"

Slowly, the rest of her troops formed a line of ships behind Vala as each soldier gave their consent. When Kara saw that everyone was ready and that their fear had been battled back the colonel spoke once more.

"To Argo!" she exclaimed.

"To Argo!" Vala returned.

"TO ARGO!" the soldiers shouted.

XXX

The skies were burning over the city of Argo.

The city itself lay in ruins, the towering spires of twisted metals and glass collapsing under their own weight by a continuous barrage of energy and plasma fire. The defensive energy barrier that protected the town had been under fire night and day for weeks, and was showing it weakness…flickering rapidly as its power dwindled. Above the city floated the massive Roar-Class battleship the Void, a ship that was familiar to Kara. It belonged to her uncle and mentor General Dru-Zod. It was locked in the midst of battle, cannons and rifles along its whole body firing repeatedly into the swarm of Lanterns that buzzed around it like a hive of bees.

Amongst the plains that surrounded the city, droves of Kryptonian soldiers piloting Whisper, Screamer, Howler, and Gasp Class ships desperately defended against the onslaught. But the Green Lanterns were tenacious and seemingly endless.

Someone gasped. A check at their call sign showed that the person who admitted their horror at the sight of the city was Ensign Des Bul-Tiu, designated as Shade.

"By Roa," Des Bul-Tiu uttered, her words mirrored by a slew of agreement.

They were at the fringes of the mountains that surrounded Argo, far enough away that they could avoid being drawn into the fight. Kara had stopped her troop at the base of the mountain in order to set everyone down and regroup. A hundred soldiers all climbed out of their ships and surrounded her Screamer-class ship, kneeling along with their Colonel.

"Colonel," Vala questioned, raising her eyebrows as she nodded her head in the direction of the massacre, for that was all it could be called, "What are your orders?"

Kara worked her lip, taking out her combat knife and making smooth strokes through the sand, well aware of the way her soldiers watched her every move. For several moments she worked silently, making plans and disregarding them at the same time. Eventually, she looked up.

"Argo has already drawn their shields and deployed the Void," Kara explained, seeing the way all her soldiers scowled at the reminder. "It is safe to say that they are feeling the pain. If we want to get in we'll need to bypass the shields by working our way into the tunnels underneath the city here," she drew an "X" on the map inscribed into the sand. "Getting there won't be easy, though. The tunnels are likely heavily guarded by soldiers, not to mention that we will comprise the safety of the city just by searching for it." She pointed out. It was true. Just by looking for it in masse they would draw the attention of the Lantern hoard. They were just too big of a party to go unnoticed.

"Then what should we do, Colonel, ma'am?" Private Gen-Wu looked in askance to his leader. Kara sighed and circled the shape of the Lantern army in the sand, looking at her soldiers with a stone face.

"As I see it, only a group of about a dozen will be able to make it into the tunnels and into the city," she told the soldiers. She gave her massive group a long look, saying, "The majority of us will probably have to stay behind to help defend the city…" several gasps followed this statement. Kara took a breath, closed her eyes, before opening them to affix her troops with an even stare. "Within Argo's walls is the man that could possibly save Krypton and its people. You are soldiers of Krypton and knew from the day you were assigned that you could very well and would mostly likely die in the name of Krypton's defense. Jor-El must be found and protected at all costs."

Kara drew an X and an arrow pointing into the swarm of Lanterns, and gave her troops a long look.

"Lady-Phantom will head the party that will journey into the tunnels to find Jor-El, while the rest of us stay behind and provide as much support to the Void as possible," her features were hard at the gasps that came about by her statement, the most obvious was Vala's startled gasp.

"Kara, no," Vala interrupted, causing a ripple of surprise to spread through the group. Kara gave the younger girl an even expression.

"Lady-Phantom," Kara nodded, tensing her body, "Are you questioning my orders?"

"With all due respect, ma'am," Captain Feh-Zu broke into the conversation between the old friends, frowning heavily, "Councilmen Jor-El is likely to have a lot of security surrounding him if he is as crucial as you claim," Kara narrowed her eyes onto the captain, arching an eyebrow. "Likely, the only one of us who probably has clearance and a reason to contact the professor is probably you, ma'am," Vala nodded eagerly, trying to grapple for reasons to change Kara's mind. Vala then turned back to her old friend.

"Yes, Colonel," Vala said, locking eyes with her superior, "Besides, I doubt any of us has clearance to open the tunnels besides you," she lowered her eyes, nodding her head, "Besides, you know how touchy Councilmen Jor-El is when it comes to interacting with me. The best choice for the leader of the search party should be you, ma'am…"

"Yes," Feh-Zu stated, smirking, "Besides, it would be a terrible choice to waste your skills and talents in such a task. Whatever Jor-El has planned, he will need strong and intelligent people by his side to do it. None of us quite has the leadership skills that you have, ma'am…" he made a motion to the entire troop.

Gen-Wu, Des Bul-Tiu, Feh-Zu, Vala Lor-Van, and the rest of the small platoon were each nodding their heads in agreement and seemed to be of the same mind. Seeing the resistance to her idea, Kara sighed.

"A mutiny, huh," Kara's eyes darkened, giving a nod. "Will you be able to accept the outcome of your actions if Jor-El is able to save this planet and its people?" Vala shared a look with Feh-Zu.

"Yes, ma'am," Vala smiled, moving to embrace her old friend and making Kara still at the unexpected action. Kara was unused to physical affection, after all. "Don't worry, it'll all work out, you'll see…"

Twenty minutes later found Kara striping down her cockpit for all her tools and supplies, preparing to infiltrate the underground tunnels. As she was doing so her cockpit suddenly burst into noise, a voice coming over her radio.

"Kara Zor-El, do you read me?" the rich and deep voice, unmistakable to the child colonel, asked. General Dru-Zod, her mentor, was waiting on her reply.

"Yes, sir," Kara exclaimed, speaking to her radio as she pressed the switch that allowed her to speak to the man. Zod laughed.

"It is so good to hear your voice again," Zod claimed, making Kara flush in embarrassment. She was unused to affection of any kind, and Dru-Zod never struck her as the type of man to give out undeserved compliments. "When your father's message suddenly cut off we thought for sure that we were the last."

"Sir, my father ordered me to come to Argo to seek out Jor-El," Kara explained. Zod chuckled.

"Yes, that makes sense," Zod stated. He sighed. "Jor-El has a plan to save Krypton's legacy, but he needs a strong Kryptonain female to make it work. He was planning to send your mother, but since you are here that means that he won't have to resort to that…"

"Sir," Kara wondered.

"No, it is best that Jor-El tells you," Zod sighed again, the radio cutting off for a few seconds before Zod contacted her again. "Colonel Kara Zor-El, I'm tasking you with the job of making it into Argo and finding Jor-El. I'll contact Jor-El to let him know that you will be heading his way, but you'll need to survive and enter the city before he can contact you…is that understood?" Zod demanded.

"Yes, sir," Kara exclaimed. Zod chuckled.

"Alright," there were several moments of silence, where Kara could hear the panic of several people in the background yelling. Zod gave a resigned sigh. "I'll try buying you as much time as possible to make it to Jor-El, but once you enter the city you'll be on your own, kid. Good luck." With that, Zod cut the com-link, leaving Kara to sit staring mutely at her control panel.

After several minutes, Kara gave a sigh and placed her plasma rifle over her neck and her plasma sword at her waist. Her combat knife was in her boot, and she carried her secondary plasma gun on the other side of her hip, within easy reach. In her carryon bag were several power cells for her guns, and enough explosives to level a fusion reactor. All together she was as prepared as she could be…

Now came the hard part.

To Be Continued…

Author's Note:

Yeah, so I began writing this chapter last Saturday, and wrote 90% of the Chapter by noon on Sunday. But then I stopped and didn't return to this chapter till today. And when I did I had to rewrite like 40% of the chapter because I did not like I wrote it.

Sorry for the long wait, people. I wanted to work on a few other fanfiction ideas before I started back on the Code DC universe. My updating schedule should start picking up, though, because I'm about to take the finals for my college classes, and after that I'm on a two week break. So, yay!

As always, review and let me know what you think.

Ta

Professor Image

Disclaimer: I do NOT own Code Geass, DC Comics, Superman, Supergirl, or any other unoriginal materials included herein. Funimation and Sunrise own the Code Geass franchise, while Warner Bros. Entertainment owns DC. I have made no monetary gain off this work of fiction as I wrote it with only entertainment purposes in mind. Please do not sue.

Summary: The Emerald glow illuminated the derelict ship; the aristocratic features of a haunting beauty suspended in the false death. Guilt welled up in his heart. For this girl, at the very least he would save.

Code DC:

Kara Zor-El of Argo

Chapter III

Bad Company

XXX

Smoke curled heavenward from the streets. The distant thunder of plasma fire echoed down the alleyway. Kara lowered her body down into the shadows, creeping down the alley and turning her gaze up. Standing aloft on the overhang of a stairwell was the sight of a glowing alien, big and brutish in the light of dusk. The higher levels of ultra-violet radiation that shined from the invader's form were like a beacon in the dark.

Kara made a motion with her hands, forming the quick, curt hand signs developed by the Kryptonain military hundreds of years prior. A mute burst of plasma lit up the streets, and the Green Lantern standing guard over the alleyway fell down with a bloody groan.

Kara made another quick motion, and the point man stepped towards the downed body. A quick check, and the soldier radioed, "Kill confirmed."

"Roger," Kara said. She tracked her rifle over the alleyway, before motioning to the stairwell. "Take point."

"Yes, ma'am," the point man claimed.

Three soldiers went up the stairwell, Kara listening to their constant updates as they checked each level. From the other rooftop her snipers moved into position, giving their confirmation at their status. Once at the door, two soldiers, Privates Wa-Chu and Kay-Dai took up positions beside the door. The point man, Aels-Cev lowered his body and went to work on the keypad.

In seconds, the electric lock was broken, and the three soldiers stepped into the reclusive home of Councilman Sayh-Qin. A few minutes later, three muted plasma bursts were heard, followed by several more minutes of silence, and then Aels-Cev radioed.

"Three hostiles, neutralized."

"Proceed," Kara intoned, guiding her troop up the stairwell. When they rejoined the three front men they found Aels-Cev already at work with Councilmen Sayh-Qin's personal computer, easily decrypting the archaic computer code.

"How much longer," Kara demanded. Aels looked up, gave a nod, and returned to his work.

"Breaking into Councilman Sayh-Qin's personal data logs now…" on the blood stained monitor appeared a list of recent messages.

"Have any of the Lanterns managed to decrypt this information?" Kara questioned, eyeing the three corpses lying around the giant hole in the wall. They must have been forced to blow their way into the home.

"No," Aels regarded the corpses silently for but a moment, before continuing with his work. "The little one was working on the mainframe when we came in. It didn't seem like the other two were built for hard thinking. They came in after we put a bolt into the little one's skull. I don't think they managed it." Kara eyed the little gray alien, his forehead still smoking from super-heated plasma. The other two didn't appear all that intelligent, being big, muscular, but with very tiny skulls. Kara guessed that these were the other guards around the house.

"Are you positive? If the Lanterns managed to discover where Jor-El is hiding," Kara did not say anything else, as there was nothing left to say. Aels brought up another screen with information on it.

"Don't worry, Colonel, Krypton's secrets are intact," Aels stated. He cycled through the messages, before selecting a single entry. "Not even we know where Jor-El is, after all…"

"Did you find something?" Kara questioned, eying the entry.

"No, the last message is to an unregistered mainframe. I can't trace it. However, I can message it from here if you like, ma'am?" the techie mentioned. Kara nodded.

"Do it."

"Roger," the next second he typed: _We are looking for Jor-El._

A single second went by before they got a reply:

_What is the greatest Sin of Krypton?_

"Colonel, ma'am," Aels turned to the leader of the patrol. Kara narrowed her eyes at the machine.

"Pride," Kara stated, glancing to Aels, "The answer is pride." Aels nodded and typed the message. It took a moment before they got a reply.

_What is my greatest wish, Kara?_

_More paranoia,_ Kara thought, smirking on the inside. By now it was obvious to her that it was Jor-El speaking. Though it made sense why the old scientist was being so cautious, Kara knew that paranoia had been a trait of her uncle's for longer than this war had existed.

"Unification," was Kara's answer, and her techie typed it in. After a moment, they received a simple message.

_You will find me in the house of abominations._

"Abominations," Dev-Khu blinked, and then scowled. "He speaks in riddles _now_ of all times?"

"No, not riddles," Kara smiled thinly, pleased to see that her uncle was still the same as ever, even in such a crisis, "but the core of Councilmen Jor-El's beliefs. Everyone, I'm sending you the coordinates for Jor-El's hiding place. We will rest for five minutes, and then begin the operation."

"By Roa," someone murmured. Kara nodded, moving back out of the room towards the dining room, and stepping over the corpses of Councilmen Sayh-Qin and his family.

In the dining room Kara meditated briefly on the mission thus far.

Making it to the tunnels that ran underneath the City of Argo had been easy. Though her team had briefly argued with the guards stationed outside the gates of the tunnels for their cowardliness, they had eventually proceeded into the tunnels. Only a few kilometers in they were forced to hold their positions and lock fire with a pursuing group of Green Lanterns who had forced their way into the tunnels. Kara's team had been forced to collapse the entrance of the tunnels to block the invading Lanterns.

Once they had made it topside they permanently sealed the tunnel and made their way into the battle worn streets. Though the bulk of the invasion force had been pushed out of the city, a remainder had managed to sink their claws into the city and pursued them through the streets. Kara had logically deduced that the majority of the city's population had retreated to the underground shelters and set her patrol into finding a Councilmen's private home in order to find a hint of Jor-El. This brought them here.

Kara had grown up not only learning to be the best soldier that she could be from her uncle and mentor General Dru-Zod, but also mastering the mathematics, the sciences, the languages, and the other necessary lessons that a Kryptonain child should learn from her father and uncle, Jor-El. Because of that, she was well acquainted with Jor-El's views of ethics and morality. And if there was one thing that Jor-El considered disgusting, then it was the people of Krypton's propensity to genetically engineer their children. That was why she knew where her team needed to go to find Jor-El.

_The Archive…_ Kara's eyes darkened underneath her helmet as she brought up the files in her suit's onboard storage about the Archive. Bringing up the blue-prints of the building, Kara clicked her teeth thoughtfully. _No wonder…with that kind of security and the way the building was built, it makes sense. But what is he looking for in the Archive?_ Kara knew her uncle well, and knew that he would not seclude himself in a single building in the middle of the warfront just because of the safety it offered. No, he had to be after something else.

_Could it be_…? Kara's eyes widened, the blood draining from her face. Then she scowled. _No…Jor-El would never do _that_… he would rather evacuate the whole planet through the Phantom Zone then rely on _that_ machine…but…_

There were no guarantees for what Jor-El would do. Zod was out there fighting a hopeless battle above the doomed city of Argo to protect his age old family friend. Zor-El was dead, consumed by a black hole, and Krypton was doomed to succumb to the same black hole. There was really no telling how Jor-El would react to _anything_ right now…

Her onboard clock chimed, and Kara stowed her concerns, returning to her troops. Soon, they set out back to the streets to find the Archive and Jor-El.

XXX

Kara's pulse beat heavily in her ears, a quick tattoo of sound that helped focus her mind.

All around her was chaos, lights and plasma flashing overhead as she kept her body behind cover and shouted into her radio orders.

Only a block away from the Archive a shockwave had swept through the city, a result of the energy barrier surrounding the city failing finally after all this time. The muted noises of the battlefield outside the city became a roar, as the invaders pressed in, collapsing as many buildings as possible and hunting for survivors.

With this hopeless situation in mind, the Void had set all its attention to holding the invaders at bay from approaching the Archive, something that told both the invaders and Kara that something important was waiting there. The Lanterns pressed into the city, and Kara's team was forced into a fast, hurried melee as they defended the building while Kara shouted into the intercom and gave her orders to the remainder of her troops.

There was really no hope of survival, and every second a green wave of energy would get under one of her soldier's guard and claim their life. Kara herself had nearly been taken out, when Vala's personal Whisper-class ship took the brunt of the energy wave and then suicide rushed her enemies. Above her, the Void was taking constant fire, plumes of smoke and debris rising into the air.

A big lumbering brute of a Green Lantern, with an under bite with large tusks and beady black eyes, rushed Kara, and the Colonel was forced to retreat, firing a burst of plasma that made chunks of flesh fly from the monster's chest but otherwise did not put the invader down. Her gun was red hot in her hands, a sign of overuse, and she could barely cling to it. The alien took a swipe at her and batted her away, her plasma rifle sailing across the ground. Kara rolled across the ground, came up to a crouch and removed her plasma pistol.

The beast roared, and then started shuddering as a hail of plasma fire consumed his right shoulder, burning his whole arm off. The green glow around his body immediately faded, but the alien did not immediately fall. He took a lumbering step towards his attackers and smashed them away, roaring.

Kara flew forwards, instinctively taking the opportunity to attack. Since the Green Lanterns were always replenishing their ranks, they never had the time to train their recruits. What that meant, is that none of the newest Lanterns knew not to turn their back to an enemy, even a defeated one.

Kara's long fingers reached into her carryon pouch and retrieved her last grenade, pulling the pin in the same motioned and throwing her arm forwards. The alien's flesh squelched as her fist sank into the gaping wound on its backside, and she released her package into the monster's flesh, jumping back quickly just as the grenade exploded.

Plasma blossomed out into the street, consuming the pavement and throwing up random shrapnel. At so close a range, Kara could not back away fast enough; a jagged, white hot piece of metal pierced her side and threw her to the ground.

For a moment, Kara lost sense of the world around her, her hearing filled with static and her vision filled with white noise. In the next second, the world came into sharp relief as the pain set in.

Kara slowly pushed herself to her knees, trying to shake off the pain, but ended up falling onto her face. She tried rising several more times before a gloved hand reached underneath her arms and lifted her to her feet.

"Hurry," a familiar voice said urgently into her radio. "Hurry now, Kara."

The next few minutes were a jumble of pain and colors, the young soldier fighting to remain conscious despite the pain. When she next became aware again she found herself sitting in a pool of her own blood inside a lift while her mother field dressed the wound in her side and her aunt Ursa watched on with her customary scowl on her face.

"Easy, easy dear," Allura-El told her gently, while at the same time jamming the nozzle of a bio-foam tube into her wound and making the girl scream in pain. "Just wait until the pain killers kick in…"

"M-mother," Kara gasped, grasping at the older woman's shoulders. "W-what…where are we?"

"We're underneath the Archive. We're taking a lift to Jor-El's lab. From there, Jor-El will begin prepping you for evacuation."

"What, mother?" Kara blinked, trying to focus through the blurriness in her vision as the pain killers kicked in. Ursa sighed.

"Krypton is doomed, girl," Lady Ursa-Zod stated, glancing back to the mother-daughter pair. "It is impossible to reverse the black hole now that it has been created. When the Brain Interactive Construct went rogue it doomed Krypton. Now my husband and your uncle are laying down their lives and the lives of the whole planet just to save a select few."

"W-who are they?" Kara gasped, leaning back against the lift's sturdy walls.

"Two children of Krypton have been selected to travel to a distant planet to continue Krypton's legacy…Jor-El's newborn son, Kal-El, and you, my dear sweet Kara," Allura claimed, laying a hand upon her daughter's cheek.

"Two more have been chosen as well…Jor-El's assistant, Raya," Ursa claimed, bowing her head and laying her hand upon her flat stomach in mourning, "and genetic material collected from my husband and I that will be used to create a heir to the house of Zod…"

"Lady Ursa…?" Kara said in awe. She had always revered the strong second wife of her mentor, a man who had acted more as a father for her than her own. Ursa had lived through two wars and the death of her sister Faora and the knowledge that she could not bear children herself from the wounds she had received in the War with Black Zero, and yet she was still able to go on regardless of these pains in her life.

"We're here," Ursa claimed, just as the lift stopped and the doors opened. Allura and Ursa reached down and helped lift the wounded soldier off the floor and walked her through the doors into the anteroom.

"– only can keep them at bay for a few moments more, Jor-El," the voice of Dru-Zod beckoned them into the room. Kara found Jor-El listening to a view screen while he did the last preparations on four simple simple evacuation ships of Kryptonian origins, two bigger than the others.

"Just a few more moments, Zod, that's all I'm asking," Jor-El pleaded, frantically putting on the finishing touches on the last ship. "I'm still waiting on – ah, there you are!" he exclaimed as he took notice of the trio of women entering the room.

"Jor-El," Ursa grunted as the blond haired assistant of Jor-El stepped forward to take the wife of Zod's place and help strip Kara's armor and flight suit off her.

"Have you completed your end of our agreement?" General Dru-Zod said, and Kara glanced up to see him looking down on Jor-El from his end of the com-link, his body bloodied and battered.

"Yes, everything has been prepared like you have requested," Jor-El stated urgently, moving to a nearby station where the wailing cries of a baby was heard. He shushed the boy that he removed from the ultra-violet light set up to strengthen the child, and took him to one of the smaller ships set up in the room. "There, there, Kal-El…"

Kara eyes glanced to the station and saw to her alarm a limp form resting next to the crib, covered in a sheet. It seemed her mentor shared her thoughts as he spoke up.

"For what it is worth, Jor-El, I'm sorry about your loss," Zod claimed, before looking across the room at his wife who was inspecting the final ship, which possessed only a genetic splicer entombed in its confines. "Ursa, my love…?"

"I'm here, Dru," Ursa stepped forwards. From the way they were looking at each other Kara knew that they were about to say their final goodbyes. Kara shut her eyes and ignored the world around her as her mother and Raya undressed her and set her into her own ship.

"Raya," Kara weakly reached towards her old friend, the slightly older woman smiling and patting the soldier's cheek.

"Shush, just rest, we'll be fine…" Raya claimed. She pulled away, allowing Kara to have her last words with her mother.

"Mom," Kara began. Allura smiled.

"The world you're going to…they're a primitive race. It should be the perfect place for you to hide from the Green Lantern Corp." Allura claimed. She smiled and bowed her head to kiss her daughter across her forehead. "The planet orbits a yellow sun, so you'll need to exert discipline for yourself, Raya, and the boys. On that planet, you'll be like gods. Try to keep some humility…" Allura pulled away, pressing the button next to the ship that started to lower the top of the ship onto the rest. Kara closed her eyes, letting her body relax and prepare itself for the many dreamless years ahead of her as she traveled to another galaxy in cryo-sleep.

Just as the lid was closing she heard Jor-El speak.

"Everything has been accounted for. I've included the Codex within the AI for the Scion of the House of Zod's ship. When they are ready, Krypton can be created anew…"

"I pray that they don't make the same mistakes that we did…" Zod replied.

XXX

In the last few minutes of Krypton's life cycle, just before the planet collapsed in on itself from the black hole consuming it, the Green Lanterns were forced to retreat by their superiors. In the wake of the decision, amidst the chaos, four small ships blasted out of the gravity well from the doomed planet and retreated far into the distance. But, as they were breeching the outer rim of the solar system, one of the ships…_stalled_.

Thaal Sinestro watched the three speeding trails that were the departing ships, turning his eyes to the one ship that remained. He easily glided towards it, raising his ring to shine his light upon the ship and examine the Kryptonain survivor within.

The Emerald glow illuminated the derelict ship; the aristocratic features of a haunting beauty suspended in the false death. The pale face of Raya stared back at him, calm her sleep.

Guilt welled up in his heart. To think, that a whole species had been brought to near extinction just because of the feud between the Green Lanterns and the people of Krypton. Pride had damned the once noble people, and all their knowledge and achievements could not save them from their own weapons.

This girl did not deserve this fate. And it was in that moment that Thaal Sinestro knew what he had to do.

For this girl, at the very least he would save.

To Be Continued…

Author's Note:

So…what did you think of the final revelations for this side story?

As you can tell, the Code DC universe has gotten a MASSIVE facelift. These revelations and more will be covered in the new Lal-Zod story, which I hope will better depict the things I wished to write about in the original imagining of the story.

Next up on my list is rewriting Lal-Zod and working on Akito Hyuuga of Shadows. Be on the look out!

As always, review and leave me with your thoughts!

Ta.

Professor Image.

Disclaimer: I do NOT own the Code Geass franchise or Superman or DC comic. Sunrise, Bandai and Funimation own the rights to the Code Geass franchise. Warner Bros. owns the rights to Superman and DC comics. I have made no monetary gain off of this work of fiction. I wrote this story with entertainment purposes in mind only. Please do not sue.

**EDIT: THIS CHAPTER HAS BEEN REWRITTEN! PLEASE REREAD IF YOU WISH TO UNDERSTAND SOME OF THE PLOT OF THE NEW "CODE DC" UNIVERSE!**

Summary: People handle power differently. Suddenly finding himself with god-like powers, Lelouch vi Britannia learns what it means to be human. Britannia will soon come to fear the Spawn of Zod.

Enjoy:

Code DC:

Lal-Zod of Krypton

Chapter I

Genesis of a Demon

XXX

Dru-Zod barely twitched as the needle puncture the tender flesh of his arm, sinking easily into a strong vein. The handsome, aged general's attention was more attuned to the goings on around his person, the static, turbulent noise of the lab as Raya Dax-Ur and Allura-El tended to the newborn Kal-El and his wife, Ursa-Zod carefully watched the lab's war computer to discern the battles outside.

"That should be all I will possibly need," Jor-El stated, pulling the syringe out of the general's arm and removing the last vial of blood that he would need for his newest ploy. "Let's hope this is enough."

"Hope, tch," Zod grumbled, slowly folding the sleeve of his flight suit down his arm again. The nano mesh weave of the ultra-violet sensitive cloth made his skin tingle, and he could already feel the itch on his arm where the suit was attempting to repair the insignificant hole in his skin, despite the minute traces of ultra-violet light on Krypton's surface.

"It's all we have now," Jor-El regarded, his eyes darkening as he directed a mournful gaze at the still form on his operating table. But there wasn't enough time to mourn, even if it had only been several minutes since the person under the sheet had been fighting for their life. Dru-Zod grappled with his despair, feeling a significant amount of sympathy for the man…it had only been a few short years since his dear Faora passed away…

"Be that as it may," Zod stood up from his chair and turned his back to the scientist to retrieve his weapons and armor. "I rather have more substantial proof that this is not the end for Krypton…"

"I will begin prepping the four ships after I finish working on the samples that you and your wife provided me," Jor-El stated, and Zod glanced behind him to see the scientist busy at his workstation, using his DNA splicer, cell scrambler, and gene replicator to begin operating on the samples that he had been given. Lying across his genetic mutating table was a simple, dark cube that was simply known as the "codex".

"See that you do," Zod nodded, turning back to his equipment and snapping his bracers on.

"Kara has just entered the perimeter," Ursa spoke up, breaking the thick silence. Zod glanced over to his wife, watching her trace a path through the holographic buildings and quickly work through several dozen calculations at once. "Twenty, maybe thirty minutes tops before she reaches the entrance…"

"Jor-El, I'm afraid to say that our time is up," Zod claimed, finishing up with his reequipping. He stepped towards his wife, and took her in his arms for one last kiss goodbye. "Do not let our sacrifices be in vain," he warned a final time before stepping towards the elevator that would take him to his Whisper-Class personal ship that would return him back to the Void. It was the only ship that had the clearance and the shielding needed to temporarily open the barrier around the city besides the Void itself.

Jor-El watched him leave with eyes full of long standing regrets. Zod could appreciate the sentiment. There was a lot of bad blood between the House of Zod and the House of El. If this were another time, another place, then they might have had the time to reconcile. Instead, they were forced to entrust the revaluation of the two houses to their children.

As the elevator began to rise, Zod turned his thoughts to the future.

Jor-El was a man of his word. Righteous, honorable, honest, if Jor-El said that he would see the bloodline of Zod continue then Dru would believe him. Jor-El wouldn't make such a claim unless he could do so.

The elevator chimed to a stop at the highest point of the building and Zod climbed out, giving a quick sweep of the skyline to make sure that there were no insurgents surrounding the building before racing to his Whisper-Class shuttle and climbing onboard.

The startup sequence was quick and efficient, and in no time Zod was climbing into the air. He paused a moment to turn around and regard the silent, destroyed building that was formally the Archive, before turning around and approaching the barrier.

It was in that moment that General Dru-Zod of Krypton felt it. The cruelest of emotions welled up in his breast, fanning the flames of fanaticism that he had pushed back tirelessly for years; the ultimate illusion that all manner of men fell to at some point. The feeling called hope. And he knew…someday, the house of Zod would return.

The barrier dropped, and the right wing of the ship exploded.

XXX

"What am I looking at?" Emperor Charles zi Britannia questioned as he observed the large and metallic object lying across the surgical bench. The diminutive form of his childlike older brother, V.V. stepped out from behind him and towards the object.

"I couldn't tell you," V.V. stated, looking strangely fascinated by the find. Of course, being half a century old and still possessing the appearance of a child meant that he had seen quite a lot and that very little could interest him these days. The finding of this…object was a leap outside their comfort zone, which noticeably piqued the immortal child's interest.

"Well, what do you know of it so far?" the aging emperor questioned, narrowing his eyes speculatively at the metal construct. His violet eyes trailed down the shiny, silver surface of the strangely aerodynamic object. It was obvious that it wasn't a natural design, but what it _appeared_ to be was completely unbelievable. Still…

"Obviously, it's a ship of some sort," V.V. slapped the side of the object, turning to his brother. "Though what its purpose could be and why it was submerged under the Antarctic's ice shelf for several thousand years is anyone's guess. I couldn't even begin to speculate about this craft's origins…" he sighed and shook his head, "I've been unable to pierce the shell of the craft with anything, not even high explosives and lasers. Nothing works at all. Even diamond grinds itself to dust against this ship's exterior. However, there is something of note," saying that, he headed over to a mounted computer at the back of his lab, obviously expecting his younger brother to follow. Charles did.

"As you can see, there is obviously something inside," V.V. said, pointing at the image on the screen. It was an image of the spaceship's heat signature, the only noticeable hot point being where the large bulb of the ship resided. Curiously, from the readouts of the ship, Charles noted that the rest of the ship was ice cold. The emperor narrowed his eyes at the ship.

"Do you have any idea of what is inside the ship?" Charles questioned, notably alarmed at the idea of what drove a clearly superior civilization to send such a ship to Earth in the first place. V.V. shook his head, his excitement at this new mystery apparent on his face.

"Not a clue," V.V.'s fingers traced along the circular image, a pointless gesture to draw his brother's attention to the bulb. "As you can see, it conforms to the shape of the bulb, and is several feet long, wide, and deep. Whatever it could be, and engine or even a life form, it's putting off a lot of heat and power. From my estimation, it's generating heat and energy much in the same way as the sun. And yet, the outside of the craft is ice cold, measured at 0 degrees Celsius, and 32 degrees Fahrenheit. Whoever were the people that made this ship were centuries, possibly even thousands of years more technologically advanced than we are…" he described. Charles shut his eyes and drew in a heavy breath.

"Is it a threat to our scenario?" Charles questioned the immortal child. V.V. regarded the ship silently, tapping his chin thoughtfully.

"At this moment, the ship hasn't shown any signs of life or even that it could activate at all. Besides, I'm monitoring it every moment of every day, so I don't see how it could possibly pose a threat considering that I've been tampering with it for months now and it hasn't reacted in the least." V.V. shook his head. "At the moment it's still only academic interest, and neither threatens our plans or aids them…so," he shook his head. "Anyways, that's only the beginning…"

"There's more?" Charles growled. V.V. nodded, and clicked another file on his computer, pulling up two satellite images that were nearly identical to the heat signature of their currently uncovered spacecraft.

"Yes," V.V. smiled. He zoomed in on one of the images. "As you can see, I've managed to track down two similar objects across the surface of our planet. Particularly, this one," he circled one of the objects on his screen with his mouse, "is buried deep under the ice shelf of the Arctic, around the same depth as our own ship. The other," he circled the second ship on his screen, "is at the bottom of the Atlantic ocean, at a depth that we aren't currently equipped to reach technology wise."

"And do they appear to have the same function as this ship?" Charles jerked his hand back to point at the ship on the examining table. V.V. shook his head.

"No," he zoomed out of the satellite image and moved back to the Arctic one. "As you can see, it appears as if these two ships harbor some kind of humanoid life forms, though the second is obviously older," he indicated the brighter heat image with his mouth, tracing the outline of the human-like adult, then moved back to the image of the baby, "though why this civilization would send one of their children and one of their adults and another ship with an unknown purpose could be anyone's guess," he zoomed out and clicked on the heat image of their own ship. "As you can see, all three crafts are putting off a tremendous amount of heat, similar to a Sakuradite reactor or even the sun. But it's especially obvious that this ship," V.V. circled the heat image of the ship in their possession, "is putting off the most heat and energy, possibly tied into whatever purpose spawned the creation of the ship in the first place. What is more, it seems that the other two ships, as you can obviously see, are processing energy throughout the whole length of their bodies, while the one we possess is only processing energy throughout the bulb of the ship. This has lead me to believe that the primary objective of this ship is to safeguard its cargo, for whatever purpose that I can't determine," he zoomed out and clicked onto the images of the other two ships, "and from what I can guess of the primary purpose of the other two ships, they are to release their cargo as soon as possible, but as of yet have not done so, which is probably because of being stranded in hostile territory."

"And what would you suggest, brother?" Charles asked. V.V. stroked his chin.

"From how long it took us to fish this one out of the ice, I'd say we should begin drilling at the Arctic ice shelf as soon as possible for the first ship, and possibly inflate our navy to try and fish the other ship out of the Atlantic. There's no telling what we could learn from these two individuals…" he smiled. "Though, I'd be prepared to use your geass when you meet them…"

Charles thought of this suggestion for several moments, before asking, "How long do you think it would take us to uncover these other ships?" he wondered aloud. V.V. waved dismissively.

"The first should take up to only three or four years, given how long it took us to uncover the first one. The second, on the other hand," he shrugged. 'I'd imagine that it would take almost until we finish our scenario before we fish that one out of the ocean, since we'd have to advance our navy by nearly fifty years in technology before we could reach those depths…"

Charles shook his head. "I'll give the order to hunt for the first ship. The second is too far beyond our current technological level to pursue. I hope that only one subject will be enough to satisfy you, my dear brother…yes?" he nodded.

"Of course, brother," V.V. agreed. Charles smiled and turned around to depart.

"If that is all, I should really be returning to my dear Marianne, brother," Charles explained. At his words, V.V. twitched unconsciously, trying to hide the displeased frown from forming on his face. Charles turned back to his brother, and V.V. smiled again. "Please do not let this consume all your attention, brother." Then Charles was gone.

V.V. frowned.

XXX

Marianne vi Britannia, fifth imperial consort to the emperor of Britannia, Charles zi Britannia, had grown comfortable in her life of leisure as a royal consort, and as one of Charles most trusted comrades. To her, it seemed to be almost dream-like how she could go from living the life of a commoner in her lord's military to a noble and her lord's most beloved consort. Perhaps the only thing that put a strain on her unnaturally happy life was the fact that no matter how often or how hard they tried, Marianne was unable to conceive a child with her lord.

Oh, it wasn't as if they hadn't been trying, because they had. Probably harder and much more often than any of the other consorts in her lord's court, but it just didn't seem to take. This didn't make a lot of sense considering all the tests that both she and Charles had undergone. Not only were they capable of having children, but Charles was incredibly potent and she was _very_ fertile. But despite all that they had tried, nothing seemed to work. It almost appeared as if the very fates themselves were against them.

Still, if nothing else, they were persistent, and it wasn't as if they didn't _enjoy _trying to make a baby with each other, because they did…very, very, very much. However, it noticeably dampened their otherwise happy relationship, something that Marianne was ill content to let continue. She'd already taken the newest, most advanced fertility drug prior in the week, and had been confirmed soon after that she was ovulating. Because of this, Marianne was intent on finding her lord and going through another round in an attempt to make a baby. That is, if she could find him.

She'd already searched the whole court, from the throne room to the royal bed chambers of Charles' consorts, and yet hadn't been able to find him in the least. Not a hint or a hair could be seen, and he was with none of the other consorts. Knowing this, Marianne determined to head to the only other place she could think of where he'd be. That just so happened to be V.V.'s lab.

As she expected, she found V.V. secluded in his personal lab, but she did not see her lord anywhere within the lab. In fact, she was just about to turn and look elsewhere when her inquisitive eyes caught the sight of a lumpy, giant object at the back of the lab covered by a dark tarp. She could just see a bit of metal poking out from under the tarp, shiny and silver, like chrome. Instantly, her mind whirled with possibilities, the largest being that this object was a piece of a new prototype Knightmare Frame that V.V. had been working on.

Now, there were very few things that she loved with a passion in this world, the topmost being her lord, Charles zi Britannia, and her second most being the Akasha Project. However, another known love of hers was the Knightmare Frame project, which was the very same reason why she caught Charles's attention in the first place and the sole reason for her current lot in life, which was reason enough for her love. The possibility of seeing whatever V.V. could come up with for a Knightmare Frame was far too tempting of a chance to pass up, and so, with a brief glance V.V.'s way to make sure that he was not watching, she cautiously approached the covered object.

She felt an immense amount of excitement as she reached the tarp covered object, contemplating the odd, lumpy shape. If she had to guess, it appeared almost as if it were a new Sakuradite engine, though what type she could not say. As her fingers clenched into the tarp she experienced a moment of paranoia, and glanced back to make sure that V.V. was still occupied. When she determined that he was, she threw off the tarp and marveled at the device.

It amazed her.

Obviously, it wasn't even an engine at all, and it definitely wasn't a piece of a new Knightmare Frame, since it was far too seek and aerodynamic to be one. But what it was she couldn't even begin to fathom. Marianne idly looked over the machine, drinking in its quiet, unassuming elegance, and drifted from one stray thought to then next. She was so caught up in her musings that she didn't notice V.V. until he was directly next to her. "Ah, what are you doing here, Marianne?" at that, she literally jumped, whirling around and supporting herself by placing her hands on the shiny object.

"Ah, V.V., you scared me," she breathed, placing a hand to her chest. The child immortal arched an eyebrow, but didn't say anything, so Marianne continued, "How long have you been there, anyways?" However, V.V.'s eyes began to widen in alarm, alerting her to a strange phenomenon behind her. "What are you –" and as she turned she came face to face with the muzzle of a gun." What – ah!" and then it fired.

When she came around she could hear two voices speaking hurriedly over her body, and she could just recognize them as belonging to both V.V. and her lord, Charles. She smiled happily at the concern in their voices, idly clutching at the warm in her stomach that sent waves of pleasure throughout the rest of her body.

"Ah, she's waking up!" V.V. exclaimed in excitement. Marianne peeked through her lids to see that she was lying upon her own bed and that both V.V. and Charles were looking over her prone body. When Charles saw her opening her eyes he breathed a noticeable sigh of relief.

"Are you alright, my love," Charles reached for her and Marianne accepted his proffered hand and clutched it to her face, kissing his knuckle. The emperor arched an eyebrow at this, appearing almost amused.

"Never better," Marianne let his hand go and gave a huge, pleased stretch, soaking in the warmth that was pulsing through her body that originated from her stomach, "in fact, I've never have felt this good before. How long was I out and how did I get here?" at her words Charles glanced to his older brother.

"Well, that's a little complicated," V.V. stated. Then he launched into the tale of the history of the ship that they found and about what he had been able to deduce about its purpose, which is to say, nothing. He then smiled ruefully and said, "Then, when you turned around the bulb on the machine, which I guess was a hatch of some kind, opened and produced some kind of gun that fired upon you when you came face to face with it. But the good news is that there doesn't appear to be anything wrong with you, so I have absolutely no bloody idea what the hell it did to you!" He frowned, looking displeased. "After searching through the hatch where the gun came from the only thing I discovered was this," here, he removed a simple kerchief from his pocket and unfolded it to hand her the object inside.

Marianne arched an eyebrow as she studied the simple crystal in her hands. It was a light blue color, and the only thing it was adorned with was an elaborate, stylized "Z" in the very center of its face.

"What is it?" she asked. V.V. shook his head.

"I have no idea," he scrubbed his hand through his hair, appearing quite vexed. "This whole thing baffles me completely. I mean, who would send three ships to a distant planet where they'll crash into the most inhospitable areas of the planet preventing them from opening, and then have the only one that is recovered fire some kind of strange weapon at a random woman that seems to have no purpose than knocking said woman out? It makes no sense!" he exclaimed, contrite. At this, Charles smiled.

"All the same, I'd like it if you didn't pursue this subject any longer," he told V.V.

His older brother nodded. "If this ship was so confusing for you, I'd hate to see what a member of their species would be life for you," Charles laughed, something that Marianne shared with him. V.V. frowned.

"Oh, just laugh it up, you two…" he sighed in aggravation, before marching out of the room. At this, Marianne and Charles only laughed harder. Consumed with joy, Marianne idly clutched the crystal to her chest, unaware of the events that were now set into motion with her contact with the alien ship.

XXX

"We have a problem, my lord," was the first thing that the knight said after finding him. Buried in his research in his personal study after a long day of tending to the useless sows that were the majority of his harem, Charles was understandably quite testy.

Charles stood, looming over the knight with the light from his fireplace flickering in his eyes. The knight faltered for a second before standing straight and giving as stable a salute as he was capable. Charles growled. "What has happened?"

"It's your son, sir," the knight hastened, a terrified quiver in his voice. Obviously, this knight knew how important the son that he was giving a report on was to the emperor. He would not like this. "Lelouch vi Britannia…there has…been an incident…"

Charles did not think as he reached forwards, clasping one of his large hands around the frightened man's throat and pulling him towards his face. A sneer worked its way onto his face as he growled, "What – has – happened?"

One hour later, Charles stood outside his older brother's lab with his fifth consort and mother of his most prized son by his side, Marianne vi Britannia. A one way reflective glass stood in front of the two parents, and from here they could direct their worried gazes to the image of their son. Sitting straight backed, tense and alert with his eyes closed was there son Lelouch. From how tightly he was clenching his eyes, it almost appeared as if he was afraid of opening them. The sight caused Charles to sigh and massage the bridge of his nose tiredly.

"How could this happen?" Marianne worried, wringing her hands for her lack of ability to do anything for her child. Charles nodded absently.

"Perhaps we should have been more careful…" Charles stated in a restrained voice as he glanced to his consort. Marianne's face looked extremely pale with her worry and terror.

"Could it be…the ship?" Marianne's eyes darkened as she turned once more to regard her son. From inside the lab they could see V.V. was trying to draw several vials of blood. It took several minutes as V.V. had to use a laser sharped titanium needle to pierce the soft flesh of the young boy's arm, since all the other needles that he had tried had shattered when trying to force them into his skin. Charles shook his head.

"It is as good a deduction as any I could possibly think of right now," Charles stated sourly. "How else can we explain the fact that our five year old son managed to punch a fully grown man through a door for insulting his baby sister and then when said man pulled a gun our son set him on fire with just a glance from his eyes?" exclaimed Charles, reflecting on the incident that was described to him by that knight who had sought him out. Of course the man who had assaulted his son was one of the nobles in the court who had an issue with his dirty blood. Lelouch and Nunnally vi Britannia were the children of Lady Marianne vi Britannia who had been a commoner raised to noble status and then selected to become an imperial consort. However, the way his son had dealt with the threat has caused shockwaves of awe and fear to spill throughout the whole court. The nobles in the court were now regarding Lelouch as either the Messiah resurrected again or the Anti-Christ. This was the reason for the current test, since the only idea they had for Lelouch's spontaneous development of super powers was genetic tampering.

After running Lelouch's blood through several lengthy tests, V.V. scampered out of the room and came to their side with an urgent expression on his face.

"You won't like this at all," was the first thing that V.V. said as he greeted them. Those words set the two parents on edge. They shared a glance before V.V. led them into the room. Quickly, they found a seat at the immortal's desk. V.V. hurriedly turned the results of his tests to the parents. However, upon seeing the results, both Charles and Marianne let out gasps of shock and awe.

"Dear Lord almighty, what the hell is _that_? Charles uttered in clear shock, gaping at the image of the displayed helix. His aged eyes drew in the sight, and he knew something was immediately wrong with the picture, since he counted not two strands in the helix, but _four_!

"As you can no doubt clearly see, your son has four strands of DNA," V.V. explained, "which, I believe we can all agree, is completely unnatural, for a _human_, at least," he stated, emphasizing "human" to the two parents. "Unfortunately, he still classifies as human, since my continued testing of his DNA shows that two of his DNA strands are almost identical to the two strands found in human DNA." V.V. indicated the strands in question with his mouse. "From what I have discovered, these two human-like strands are nearly identical to yours, brother," to answer their curiosity, he pulled up an image of Charles DNA and overlaid it onto Lelouch's DNA showing that they were nearly identical. Then V.V. pointed to one of the genes on Lelouch DNA helix, which as they watched separated from the body of the helix as a gene on the two alien strands was cloned and inserted into its place. "As you can see, it appears as if his human DNA is being converted slowly to match the alien."

"How is this possible?" Marianne wondered. "Unless," she began. V.V. nodded in answer.

"Logically, the answer is the ship," V.V. motioned to the back of the lab where the two parents could see the still form of the ship covered by a tarp. V.V. straightened, saying, "The only theory I can think of would be that when you arrived in this lab five years ago you may have been in the early stages of pregnancy, possibly with a freshly created zygote imbedded in your womb. The ship probably sensed this, and that blast from its gun grafted alien DNA to the zygote, which has slowly been converting your son's DNA over the years…this would account for the sudden appearance of these powers in your son..." V.V. tapped his chin with his pen. "Though, the question of why he can't turn them off is cause for concern," he indicated the burn marks and melted objects around his lab with a sweep of his hand.

"You believe that it is possible for him to control these…abilities?" Charles asked, looking to his squirming son with interest. V.V. nodded.

"It is the most likely answer. I doubt that this species could possess these powers and be incapable of controlling them. That would definitely make interaction between one and another quite difficult," V.V. smiled. "However, Lelouch is in a difficult position. As a hybrid between a human and whatever these aliens are, I'd imagine that controlling these powers would be quite difficult. It would probably take years to gain control of all his powers, or, as it is more likely to be the case, just until his human DNA is completely converted. At best, I'd say that it'd take maybe a year for him to learn to control his strange vision based power, which, as you can imagine, will be quite difficult on him and anyone else…" V.V. did not wait for their answer as he casually turned back to his computer. "I will get started trying to find a way to suppress these powers immediately, but I think you two should have a long talk with your son and try to get him to calm down in the meantime."

Seeing that V.V. was finished speaking, Charles and Marianne went over to confront their understandably terrified son. They just hoped that they could do something for him.

XXX

"It is hard to believe that only a month ago Lelouch was anything but normal," C.C. said, breaking Marianne from her contemplation of her children. Marianne glanced at the emerald haired woman and saw that she was watching Marianne's son and daughter play with their playmates, Clovis la Britannia, Cornelia li Britannia, and Euphemia li Britannia.

"Thankfully, that is all in the past, now," Marianne smiled and sipped happily at her tea. C.C. sighed and leaned heavily into her seat, her back popping as she stretched.

"It seems almost a waste, though," C.C. stated casually, making the consort twitch as her contractor continued the conversation despite Marianne's wishes. "All that power…who would have thought that cold hearted Marianne would love her children so much that she wouldn't seize the opportunity to turn such a being into her weapon when she could…?" C.C. smiled faintly and reached for her own cup.

"I thought we already agreed that Lelouch is not a weapon?" Marianne narrowed her eyes at her contractor. C.C. waved dismissively at the question, setting her cup back down.

"It's not like I mind that he is normal again, you know," the immortal witch pointed out, giving a cat like smile as she once more turned her attention back to the playing children, "I might be an immortal, but regenerating broken bones is still as painful for me as it is everyone else," she pointed out.

"Charles has had enough trouble using his geass on the whole court and on our son," Marianne stated irritably. "I don't want to have to bother him again when you decide to visit my son once more, C.C., so don't."

"What? I'm just curious why I can't form a contract with him is all," C.C. stated, raising a hand to her lips as she smiled. "Aren't you curious why I can't give him geass?"

"No," Marianne frowned. "I'm just glad that everything is back to normal again."

"Not completely normal," C.C. slyly stated, grinning at the sour look that spread across the lady's features, "not with V.V. searching for the other ship in the Arctic, right? Soon, Charles will have another pawn to maneuver across the board…"

"I would be happy to never hear anything of these aliens again," Marianne sighed tiredly, massaging the bridge of her nose. "It was bad enough trying to contain all of Lelouch's accidents from my guard; I don't want to even begin imagining what a pure blood child of that species is capable of. I'm just glad that V.V. learned that Charles could control Lelouch's powers with his geass," the mother stated.

"For all their powers, this species were still as susceptible to geass as ours," C.C. smiled, returning her attention back to the playing children. "But I wonder…how strong would Lelouch have become once he matured without the geass?"

"I perish the thought," Marianne sighed, shaking her head. "Why are you even so interested in all this, anyways?"

"Just curious, I guess," C.C. smiled, her eyes narrowing into cat slits, "There are plenty of legends around the world that we have been visited by gods from the stars…I just find myself intrigued to learn that they are true…"

"All the same," Marianne stated, looking at her contractor seriously, "I don't want to risk the chance of you accidentally reawakening his memories and his powers."

"Aww, Mari, don't you love me anymore?" C.C. pouted. Marianne rolled her eyes.

"Don't you have to be somewhere, C.C., you know, bugging someone else?" Marianne pointed out. C.C. chuckled.

"No, but I can take a hint." C.C. leaned back in her seat and crossed her legs, smiling, "Though it doesn't mean that I will listen…"

"C.C.!" Marianne exclaimed.

XXX

V.V. smiled as the vault door swung open. He had directed his guards to stand idle outside the vault as he investigated further. Striding into the iron vault, the immortal quickly found what he was looking for; the alien crystal that his brother, Charles' had stored in this vault three years ago to prevent it from ever coming into contact with his ever changing son. V.V. had grown deeply fascinated with the alien race that had created these crystals after getting his hands upon a second after digging up the second alien ship in the arctic.

V.V. had had a lot of time to study the alien species when he had found the alien baby inside the second ship. V.V. had named the baby Rolo, and soon after indoctrinated him into the geass order, using Charles's geass to wipe his mind and make him think that he had a contract with V.V.

It was shame that Charles had hidden his son in the island nation of Japan. V.V.'s sources suggested that Lelouch was staying with the Sumeragi family, but whenever V.V. sent out his men to capture the prince they would be returned in pieces with a note from Charles that told the childlike immortal to quit looking for his children. V.V. would have liked to have studied the more vulnerable human-alien hybrid and process his DNA to see if he could do something with it. Maybe make a clone or two, or even graft the alien DNA to a human subject and examine how it affected them. From studying Rolo, V.V. had determined that an army of these aliens was vastly superior to any tech that the human race could develop in a thousand years. The only thing that remained was to find Lelouch and see if he could crack open these crystals to find the information that they no doubt contained.

Still, it wasn't all bad news. After all, that insufferable wench, Marianne was dead and would no longer demand his brother's undivided attention. Wherever Lelouch and Nunnally vi Britannia were, they were far enough away that they did not consume anymore of Charles attention, either. V.V. doubted that Charles would have allowed him to study Lelouch, after all, as he still loved his two favorite children. So it was good that they were out of the way. If V.V. happened to find Lelouch and Nunnally on his own then he could go about kidnapping Lelouch and brain washing him to serve the geass order.

V.V. smiled, turning back around, and almost slithered from the room as he disappeared in order to take the crystal back to the geass order to study.

XXX

Shin opened his eyes to find himself looking up at unfamiliar ceiling. The ticking of a clock was the only sound in the room, aside from the soft snores of the person next to him. Lying on the other side of the bed was another young boy, someone that Shin recognized as his younger brother, Akito.

Shin sat up, absently noting the Spartan design of the room. There was only a single desk by the bed that he was sharing with his brother, and a burrow and closet on the other side of the room. Besides those things, and the alarm clock on the desk, there was nothing.

The doorway was open, as there was no door. Instead, a flap of cloth blocked the inside of the room from the rest of the house. The window at the other side of the room was open, allowing the cool humidity of India's monsoon season to flow into the quiet room.

Shin noticed all this, but didn't react, trying as he was to maintain a calm countenance and not give into the rage and despair pooling in his gut. From beside him, Akito rolled over and gave a loud snore, distracting the boy from his thoughts.

Shin decided to remove himself from the confines of the bed. He soon found himself standing beside the bed, unsure of what to do, before he moved to the doorway and poked his head through the flap.

The hallway was without decoration, only a table by the stairs holding a simple lamp to light the way. Shin moved down the hallway in search of their rescuer or rescuers, whichever he did not care.

At the foot of the stairs he could hear a muffleed one-way conversation, as if the person speaking was talking on a phone. Intrigued, Shin slowly crept down the hallway and towards the kitchen doorway, ears attuned to the woman that he could see pacing the length of the kitchen with a cellphone in her hand.

"- yes, they're sleeping now," the woman claimed, tapping her foot irritably on the floor. "No, I don't have plans for them. No, I'm not going soft in my old age, _father_," the woman spat in the receiver. It took a moment for her to calm before she continued, "This seems more like your kind of deal, anyways. I figured that I'd give you the heads up."

Intrigued, Shin moved closer to the door and accidentally knocked over the phone book resting idly on the shelf next to the doorway. The woman looked up, said goodbye to the other person on the phone and found Shin standing in the room outside the kitchen.

"So, you're up," the woman stated, cocking an eyebrow and placing a hand onto her hip. "How are you feeling?"

"I'm uninjured," Shin stated, nodding his head, "Though I do not know how I got here, Miss Ghul," Shin admitted. The woman smiled.

"I brought you here, obviously," the woman stated. "It wasn't like I could ignore all the shouting and the gunshots next door. Thankfully, I was able to save you and your brother. Unfortunately, I'm afraid to say that your parents didn't make it."

"Ah, so what is going to happen to us now?" Shin questioned, trying to ignore the fresh memories that her words brought to mind. The woman shrugged.

"Your parents were very well respected in this community, even though they were elevens. Child services want to place you with a Britannian foster family, but I've managed to delay that decision for now. I wanted to see what you and your brother had to say to this before I let them decide your life for you…" she explained.

Shin twitched.

"I don't think we would like living with a Britannian family…not after everything that has happened," the boy claimed. The woman nodded.

"I imagined as such," she beckoned him into the kitchen, where she let him treat himself to several slices of pizza since it was the only thing that she could order at this hour. "I've made a few calls to some old friends. They've said that they would be delighted to help you and your brother out until you reached maturity," she explained.

"It sounded more like you were signing us up for the military or something," Shin mumbled. The woman grinned.

"Well, they are a bit particular," she shrugged. "They are more of a brotherhood, of sorts. They are a family and a school and club all in one…"

"I see," Shin said slowly.

"At the very least, they could teach you and your brother some worthwhile life skills to help you find a place in this pro-Britannian world…" she said.

"As in…?" Shin wondered.

"Well, I'll be frank, then," the woman said, sitting in her own chair. "They are completely anti-Britannian. I figured that they would be much better suited to taking care of some kids who have suffered grievously because of Britannian politics, and could help you and your brother navigate through the shark infested waters of this pro-Britannian world."

"You mean, they want to train us to become weapons against Britannia," Shin inferred. The woman grinned.

"You are very sharp, aren't you, Shin?" the woman chuckled.

"Yes," Shin answered once she had quieted. "If they could give me the skills needed to overthrow Britannia, then yes, I want to join them…"

"Are you sure?" the woman prompted. "The training that you will undergo is very tough. There will be many times where you curse ever making this decision. You will be hurt, you will cry, you will bleed, and you will beg for it to stop. It isn't for the faint of heart."

"I'm sure," Shin growled, gripping the table tightly in his hands. "Those damn Brits killed my mother and father…I want to make them pay!"

"Will you not wait for you brother to wake before deciding?" the woman questioned.

"I'm sure my brother will agree with me on this, Miss Ghul," the boy told his neighbor. She smiled.

"Please, call me Talia."

XXX

The fat noble smiled, absently listening to the news report on the TV while he watched his opponent sweat silently in his seat. It was obvious that the old man was trying to stall for time. It was also a completely pointless gesture as the alarm clocking their match rang. The noble's butler turned off the TV before stepping up to the chess match.

"You're out of time," the butler said. He bowed to the two at the board. The older man looked to almost be panicking as this news was processed. "From here on you'll make your moves every twenty seconds."

"Very well," the fat noble drawled. He examined the board while he played with the white chess piece in his fingers. "I'm game," he stated confidently. Before he could place the piece in his fingers down the doors to the room burst open, causing him to look up in surprise.

"Hm…? Did your substitute arrive?" He chuckled. He'd be surprised if anyone could beat him now. Not when his opponent had so much of his board captured.

The doors closed behind the two men stepping into the room. The old man turned to face the two with a relieved expression on his face, exclaiming, "Oh, thank heavens! I'm saved!"

After the old man regained control of his excitement he asked, "Are things going well at school?" this was what brought the fat noble's attention to the youth of the two men walking towards the chess match.

Amused, the noble asked, "What have we here, school boys?"

The tallest boy shrugged. "Hmph. Well, look at this…noblemen," he chuckled. The noble could see that the boy had dark hair and violet eyes, and was built like a swimmer, with a lean, toned body. The boy leaned over the table, disregarding the noble completely as he examined the chess match. Seeing this, the noble couldn't help sweating slightly, feeling suddenly unsure of himself at the confidence that exuded from the boy's being.

The nobleman grinned, stating, "I envy you kids today," it was obvious that he was trying to hide the effect that the tall boy was having on him. "You have so much time on your hands…time to regret," he grinned, asking, "What's your name?"

The tall boy watched him with the fierce gaze of a hawk, apparently judging the fat man. He smirked, and gave a half mocking bow. "Lelouch…Lamperouge," The boy straightened and moved to stand aside, allowing the other, smaller boy to look over the board.

"Woah!" the blue haired boy said, alarmed. He turned to the tall boy, Lelouch. "Now wait a second!" he motioned to the chess board, saying, "You can't win this one. It's impossible, right?" At his question, Lelouch's smirk widened, like a predator stalking its prey.

To answer his friend, Lelouch asked, "Rivals, when do you think we should leave in order to make our next class?" he seemed to be completely ignoring the current state of the chess board, showing only mild amusement. Rivalz blinked in astonishment.

"Ah," Rivalz did a quick number crunch in his head before claiming, "Twenty minutes if we haul ass," if it were possible, Lelouch seemed even more amused at this information.

"Then be sure to drive safely on our way back," Lelouch chuckled. He took a seat in the chairs offered to him on the black side of the board. Lazily, he leaned back and examined the noble intently.

"Huh?" Rivalz blinked. Lelouch chuckled.

"I'll only need nine minutes," Lelouch said, reaching for his side of the board. "By the way, about yesterday?" he asked the old man he was replacing who was watching in anticipation. The older man nodded.

"Understood, sir," the man smiled. "We'll discuss it later," at this, the nobleman arched an eyebrow.

"Nine minutes," the fat man laughed, "you only have twenty seconds per turn," he motioned to the clock. Lelouch gave a clearly arrogant smirk.

"Enough time," Lelouch drawled, before picking up the king and making his first move.

The noble smiled, "Hm? You start with the king?"

XXX

Kallen clenched the dashboard tightly while she fortified herself. Nagata took a sharp curb, cursing a storm and seething at the mouth. Once they straightened out Kallen glanced out her side mirror to see their pursuers were still in the race.

"Perfect! After we finally manage to steal the damn thing!" the Japanese man swore while swerving the truck to avoid artillery fire and the other cars on the street. One of the cars that they passed exploded in fire, probably instantly killing the Britannians inside. At another time, Kallen might have contemplated the sight with some small sense of satisfaction, but right now she was more worried about their pursuers.

"It's all because Tamaki couldn't stick to Naoto's plan…and now we have a problem!" he started swearing again. Kallen lowered her cap over her eyes, praying that they could make it out of this mess alive and whole.

XXX

Minutes after the chess match both Lelouch and Rivalz made their way down the highway, their wallets and bank accounts now laden with new funds. Having been stopped by Clovis's announcement about the causalities in the terrorist attack, they were now trying to make up for lost time. As they sped down the highway at speeds that were a little too dangerous for comfort Lelouch reflected on happier moments of his life, before the invasion and before his banishment, memories that the sight of his brother Clovis bright to life.

Lost in his thoughts, Lelouch almost missed Rivalz's comment. "The first move you made…" Lelouch could only smile at that.

"Hm?" he questioned, retrieving a book from his pocket and beginning to read silently.

"Why'd you start with the king?" Rivalz asked. He glanced back to his friend from the corner of his eyes. Lelouch nodded, silently turning a page in his book.

"If the king doesn't lead, how can he expect his subordinates to follow?" he chuckled. Rivalz wore an incredulous expression at this ideology.

"What's with that?" Rivalz questioned, shaking his head.

"What is with what?" Lelouch smirked.

"Do you fantasize about running a major corporation?" Rivalz asked, looking at the taller boy in interest. Lelouch thought on the question for a second.

"No way," Lelouch shook his head, chuckling. "Ambitions like that will kill you…" he sighed and relaxed into the seat. They drove in silence for several more moments.

The blaring of a horn interrupted the contemplative silence. Rivalz looked back and paled, swerving the motorcycle to try and avoid the truck behind them. Lelouch glanced back to the vehicle.

"Ah, we're going to die!" Rivalz exclaimed, shutting his eyes, trying to block out the sounds of the other vehicle riding their ass. Lelouch grimly stared at the instrument of their death.

Suddenly, the truck swerved down the ramp and away from them, directly into a construction site. It crashed into one of the support structures, and fell silent. Rivalz put the break on the bike and the two friends climbed from the motorcycle to stare at the crashed truck in amazement.

"Uh," Rivalz chuckled nervously. "Was that our fault?"

Lelouch narrowed his eyes. "I don't think so."

A few minutes later Lelouch stood on the overpass, examining the sight of the crashed truck as Rivalz complained loudly about their totaled motorcycle.

Lelouch absently listened to the crowd that had gathered to gawk at the truck gossip loudly. Irritated at the callousness of the people looking on at the sight, Lelouch rushed down the ramp. The crowd gasped while Rivalz tried to urge him back up onto the freeway.

Moments later found Lelouch standing at the side of the truck, shouting towards the driver, "Hey, are you alright!" There was no reaction.

Lelouch sighed and glanced around, spotting the ladder on the side of the truck. Slowly, Lelouch climbed the ladder and stood upon the roof. There was a sunroof at the back of the vehicle behind him, and in front of him the way was blocked by all the downed supports from the construction site. Lelouch glanced down into the pitched darkness of the sun roof with worried eyes, but couldn't see anything.

"Can you hear me?" Lelouch shouted into the interior of the truck through the sunroof. He couldn't do much else. "Are you okay?" he strained his ears to hear if anyone was down there, possibly hurt, and was just about to give up when a noise caught his attention.

"It's you," a soft, feminine voice called from the darkness, "Finally…I've found you…" then the voice fell silent again. Lelouch leaned towards the hole.

"Where are you? Are you in there?" he questioned the darkness inside the truck. However, before he could get an answer the truck started, turning in reverse and causing him to trip. He fell into the darkness of the truck with a gasp.

XXX

The next hour was a blur. Lelouch learned that he was on a truck with a bunch of Japanese terrorists. He actually got to see one of the terrorists, who turned out to be a redheaded girl that was somehow familiar to Lelouch. The girl changed out of her uniform and climbed aboard a Glasgow, an old Knightmare Frame model more suited for construction then fighting. After she left, Lelouch searched her dropped clothing until he found one of the radios that the terrorists used. Lelouch almost considered it a blessing, since he figured that he could offer the radio to the military and request protection, but remembered that he was an exiled prince and was trying to hide from Britannia soon after having that thought. In the end, he knew that the only thing he could do was try and escape from both the terrorists and the Britannian military.

Lelouch soon realized that they were traveling down one of the old Shinjuku Subway tunnels, and tried thinking up a strategy to escape when the truck came to a sudden stop. He was just climbing up from his hiding spot to try and escape when the doors at the back of the truck opened and admitted a Britannian soldier into the truck.

"Are you Britannian?" Lelouch began to ask. The Soldier shot forward, throwing a punch into Lelouch's face.

"That's enough mindless murder!" the soldier shouted, and Lelouch spun away and crashed into one of the cabinets at the side of the truck, knocking over several very breakable objects.

Lelouch hit the floor, and scrambled to reorient himself. The soldier was already moving closer, obviously with the intent to beat him into submission. Lelouch searched for something to defend himself with when his fingers clasped around the cool surface of something with pointed edges. The feel of it made something in Lelouch ache, making the boy tense in pain and stand idle as the Britannian soldier forced him into a submission hold.

"Wait! I'm not one of them!" Lelouch shouted, but the soldier didn't appear to be listening.

"Planning to use poison gas!" the soldier spat, "don't you lie to me!" The soldier jerked onto Lelouch's arm, and a beam of light spilled onto Lelouch's face from the doorway, sending his features into relief. The soldier gasped, spotting something shocking, and froze in a similar way as Lelouch had.

"Get off me!" Lelouch shouted, kicking his legs into the soldier's chest. The soldier grunted, and was knocked away. The man rolled before coming up clutching his ribs.

Meanwhile, Lelouch climbed to his own feet, exclaiming, "I'm not here by choice." He pointed to the soldier, shouting, "And if that's poison gas, then it was made by Britannia, wasn't it?" however, the soldier was merely gawking in shock.

"My god!" the soldier uttered, alarmed. Lelouch growled.

"Mindless murder," Lelouch scoffed, "Then why don't you just obliterate Britannia!" It seemed almost as if these words were a trigger, as the soldier reached for his helmet and removed it, showing a strikingly familiar face.

"Lelouch, it's me…Suzaku," Lelouch paled and tensed as Suzaku revealed his face.

"You…you became a soldier?" Lelouch exclaimed incredulously. Suzaku frowned.

"Yeah…what about you…you're a..." Suzaku trailed off. From the way that the Japanese boy was looking at him, Lelouch figured that Suzaku couldn't make a connection between Lelouch's school uniform and the truck they were in. At this, Lelouch bristled.

"What are you saying?" Lelouch demanded.

A sudden hissing sound interrupted them. Smoke began to fill the truck. Lelouch turned to the back of the truck where the giant container rested, and was just opening his mouth to register his surprise when he was pushed to the ground and Suzaku shoved his gas mask onto the boy's face. However, it didn't appear as if the smoke was affecting Suzaku, the Japanese born boy looking at the container with no small amount of concern.

"That's not poison gas…what is it?" Suzaku gasped.

That's when both boys spotted the girl inside the gas chamber slowly climbing out. She suddenly fell to the floor in a boneless heap. Slowly, both boys approached the girl.

XXX

An hour later found Lelouch surrounded by the royal guard.

Lelouch had had to watch as the captain of the royal guard shot Suzaku in cold blood just because he wouldn't follow orders, then, when the guard had found them again the captain had shot the green haired girl that Lelouch and Suzaku had saved. The sight of so much death and his near impending doom made the boy feel nearly catatonic. Lelouch turned his back to the guard and knelt next to the dead girl's side, clutching the crystal that he had taken from the terrorist's truck on instinct more tightly than ever.

"Our orders were to bring the girl back alive if at all possible," the captain chuckled. "Oh, well, nothing can be done about it, now," the captain shrugged, not looking distressed at this fact at all. "We'll tell our superior that the Royal Guard found the terrorist hideout and killed them. Regrettably, the female hostage had already been tortured to death…what do you think, school boy?" the captained grinned at Lelouch's terrified profile.

Lelouch breathed raggedly as he reflected on the day thus far, then on his life thus far. All those lofty goals that he had set were now going to be just empty words. All because he had to get killed by some stupid as shit Britannian soldier in the middle of a stupid ghetto just for placing his stupid nose in someone else's stupid business.

"How can this be happening?" Lelouch thought desperately, trying to find some avenue of escape, "First Suzaku was killed…then this girl…now I'm about to die." Lelouch gulped heavily, feeling tears rising to his eyes. "Before I've had a chance to do a single thing in my life…" an image flashed before his eyes, more clear than ever. "It's gone in a heartbeat! Nunnally!" he gasped. Then he felt a hand clench tightly around his wrist. Suddenly, pain overwhelmed all his senses.

The Royal Guard took several steps back as a bright golden glow consumed Lelouch's form, flames of energy bursting up and through his body from the hand and wrist where the girl was clutching onto him and where the boy was clutching onto the crystal. It seemed as if the girl was sharing his pain, too, quiet sobs racking her body despite her deathly state. Suddenly, her hand was thrown from his wrists and the glow died. Lelouch fell to his hands and knees, breathing heavily.

Slowly, like the sure movements of a giant predator, the youth rose and stood proudly. His eyes were shut as he smiled at the guards, apparently aware of how the light show had affected them.

"Say…how should a Britannian who hates his own country act?" Lelouch questioned. The guards shifted uncomfortably, completely alarmed by the boy's presence.

"Are you some kind of radical?" the captain questioned, trying to hide the fear in his own voice. Lelouch smiled grimly, showing cool confidence that unsettled the soldiers.

"What's wrong? Why not shoot?" Lelouch laughed, before shaking his head, "Your opponent is just a schoolboy…or have you finally realized?" the boy pantomimed, sounding amused with the situation. "That the only ones who should kill are those who are prepared to _be_ killed?" suddenly, Lelouch's eyes opened, exposing two amber orbs the color of red hot glowing embers.

"What's happening here?" the captain exclaimed, raising his gun to point it at the demonic teenager. Lelouch's smile stretched to ludicrous proportions, almost as if it were the wicked smile of a hyena.

Lelouch laughed. "Now you shall all…die!" Fire rained down upon the captain from the teenager's eyes.

The soldiers opened fire. As the first bullet hit Lelouch's shoulder it pinged off as if hitting steel. However, the blow caught Lelouch by surprise, more from the fact that he could barely feel it then from any real pain. Because of his surprise, Lelouch cut the flow of fire from his eyes, and watched as the soldiers took the opening presented to unleash a turret of gunfire down on him.

The first salvo bounced harmlessly off his body, or not so harmlessly since a few pinged off his chest to puncture one of the surrounding soldiers' much more fragile flesh. Lelouch watched this with a detached mind. Lelouch narrowed his eyes and it almost seemed as if the world paused around him. Surprised, Lelouch jumped back and discovered that he was moving at relatively the same speed as he normally wound, even while the rest of the world appeared to be standing still.

Curiously, Lelouch approached the group of soldiers while weaving through the slow moving hail of bullets. When he came upon the first soldier, Lelouch had more than enough time to place the soldier's face into his memory before reaching forward and grabbing the soldier's head. He then clenched his grip.

Instantly, the man's skull caved in from the boy's casual display of strength. Blood and gore sprayed from the ruptured skull. Lelouch's lack of concentration unfortunately caused the world to speed back up to normal, and the soldiers separated in alarm and began firing at him uselessly.

Slowly, Lelouch tossed the corpse of the dead soldier aside. He focused his mind and instantly the world slowed to a crawl. The boy smiled in malicious glee upon seeing this. Lelouch looked pointedly at one soldier before calling forth the feeling of heat in his eyes. Almost immediately, Lelouch found fire pouring from his eyeballs. As Lelouch was moving faster than a speeding bullet, the man had no time to even know he was being burned alive before he was reduced to ash. Then Lelouch moved onto the next soldier, and then the next, and the next, and the next. Once finished, Lelouch allowed the world to return to normal speed.

Lelouch stood in a circle of burning ash.

Lelouch raised his hands to examine them with new eyes. Colors and waves of light spilled across his flesh, dancing almost hypnotically. He had never before seen such complexities. As he mind absently registered the various new shades of swirling color his acute mind dwelt on the forgotten year spent in Aries Villa, where he had stayed hidden from the world while trying to control his heat vision and super strength. He reflected on the people he had met, of his uncle, of the very same green haired girl that had just died for him a few minutes beforehand, and of even more people, such as the girls and boys that would later become the modern Knights of the Round. Then, Lelouch reflected on his last memory of that forgotten year, when his father took him to his study and ordered Lelouch to forget the year completely and imagine a completely normal year in his life, and to believe that he was a completely normal boy and to instinctively force his powers to stop working. It seemed that he had another reason to hate his father.

Slowly, Lelouch unclenched his right hand to find that he was still holding the crystal that he had stolen from the terrorist's truck tightly in his grasp. He smiled, drinking in the simple elegance of the crystal, dwelling on the mystery of the suspicious, stylized "Z" on its blue surface. Instinctively, Lelouch knew that this crystal was important to him, and to his forgotten destiny. However, what it was and what he meant to do with it was anyone's guess. Lelouch was certain, though, that it was because of this crystal that his long forgotten memories had returned. He felt a laugh rising in his throat as his smiled turned wicked.

"Well, then…"

To Be Continued…

Author's Note:

This is the first chapter that I have rewritten for the "Lal-Zod of Krypton" story. More will follow. Please reread this chapter to understand new plots and subplots of the new Code DC universe.

**PAIRINGS:**

_Lelouch/Harem:_

_Wives: Nunnally/C.C./Kallen/Sayoko/Kara/Powergirl/Milly/Euphemia/Shirley/Wonder Woman_

_Concubines: Cornelia/Kaguya/Maxima/Villetta/Cecile/Rakshata/Nonette/Tianzi_

_Mistresses: Poison Ivy/Raven_

**OTHER PAIRINGS:**

_Rolo (Superman/Ultraman)/Lucy Lane/Anya Alstriem (Knight of Six)_

_Ohgi Kaname/Lois Lane_

_Suzaku Kururugi/Guinevere su Britannia (First Princess)/Carine ne Britannia (Fifth Princess)/Dorthea Ernst (Knight of Four)_

Yeah, I know it is ridiculous to crossover DC comics with Code Geass, and I know that Lelouch's harem is pretty ridiculous, but as I've stated continually, I have a plan!

Wives were invented because they are the characters that will get most of the character development. There's so many because I predict that the Code DC universe is going to be massive, which will give me time to develop their characters.

Concubines were invented because I didn't want to give some of the characters as much character development as the Wives. Concubines are generally women and girls in Lelouch's harem that will join Lelouch's harem for reasons besides love. Well, that is to say, requited love. Some of the girls and women, like Kaguya and Maxima will want to join Lelouch's harem out of love, while other girls and women have different reasons.

There will be no pedophilia in this story or, at least, no one under the age of sixteen physically. Nunnally, Kaguya, and Tianzi will undergo some character developmental arcs that will age their bodies by a few years.

Now, here is my explanation about the Mistress category. I basically invented the category so that I could give the women in the category a similar amount of character developmental arcs as the Wives, but have it to where they aren't as emotionally attached to Lelouch as the Wives. They are kind of a mix between the Wives and the concubines. Raven, you see, will wind up in Lelouch's harem, but something will happen to prevent her from falling in love with Lelouch. Poison Ivy, on the other hand, joins Lelouch as a "means to an end" kind of deal.

Lelouch right now is more around the level of post-1986 Superman, or, "Old 52". I could have gone all "New 52" and "DCAU" and seriously underpowered him, but I wanted to make him a bigger threat for Britannia. Eventually, Lelouch's power level will increase to about Superman-Prime or pre-1986 Superman, but that is a long way off as Lelouch will continue to grow over time to match the increasingly more powerful enemies that he will face. Basically, what I mean is that while Lelouch will _eventually_ be overpowered, right now he has enemies that can compete with him, and that he will actually have to work for his power growth. So right now he's basically as harmless as an untrained Superman, which basically means anyone with similar powers with even a hint of martial arts training could beat him…or, you know Batman could just show up and stomp him into the ground.

Anyways, I hope everyone will continue to support this series as it continues to grow. Please, also check out "Kara Zor-El of Argo" to understand more of the plots and subplots of the new Code DC universe, and check out "Akito Hyuuga of Shadows" which will be coming out sometime soon.

As always, read, review, and let me hear your thoughts.

Ta.

Professor Image.

Disclaimer: I do NOT own the Code Geass franchise or Superman or DC comic. Sunrise, Bandai and Funimation own the rights to the Code Geass franchise. Warner Bros. owns the rights to Superman and DC comics. I have made no monetary gain off of this work of fiction. I wrote this story with entertainment purposes in mind only. Please do not sue.

**EDIT: THIS CHAPTER HAS BEEN REWRITTEN! PLEASE REREAD IF YOU WISH TO UNDERSTAND SOME OF THE PLOT OF THE NEW "CODE DC" UNIVERSE!**

Summary: People handle power differently. Suddenly finding himself with god-like powers, Lelouch vi Britannia learns what it means to be human. Britannia will soon come to fear the Spawn of Zod.

Enjoy:

Code DC:

Lal-Zod of Krypton

Chapter II

The Day a Demon Wept

XXX

"_We are the ones, we are the guns_

_And we will ride; we are the voice of a song unsung_

_We are the change; we are the chains that hold us_

_We are the choice, we are the strong_

_We are one." – "We Are", Thousand Foot Krutch: The End is where we Begin._

The girl was silent. Of course she was, since she was dead.

She was pale, both naturally and from the clutch of death, and her hair was a startlingly brilliant emerald green. Lelouch reached under her shoulder to turn her onto her back, not showing any reaction to the lack of a wound on her forward. She was, unsurprisingly, as still as death.

Regardless of the knowledge of her death, Lelouch found his attention devoted to her still form, watching, waiting, as if some preternatural knowledge compelled him to. He was reward by the sudden, thunderous sound of a single thump. It was the sound of a dead heart pulsing with renewed life.

Suddenly, her heart hammered inside her chest, as if it was trying to make up for all the missed beats from her "death" in one instant. The girl's face clenched in the briefest expression of agony, before relaxing. Then, her golden eyes opened to look up dully into his scowling visage.

"Strong," she murmured, as if in a daze. Lelouch strangely felt the compulsion to reach out to her, startled to find him running his long fingers across her cheek. The green haired girl watched him quietly.

"You are different," Lelouch stated simply. The girl closed her eyes and leaned into his hand. He drew a sharp breath and jerked away, only now regaining control of his higher mental facilities.

Lelouch quickly rose from his knees, body tense with stress and urgency. His ears were suddenly struck by the noise of discord outside the warehouse that they were secluded within. He closed his eyes and allowed the sensation to pass over him.

_All around, the noise of battle; the Brittanians were in hot pursuit of the terrorists, the terrorists in the midst of a desperate bid for survival, and the Japanese whom called the Shinjuku Ghettos home were in a panic. He heard the hard screech of wheels on pavement as a Knightmare Frame whirled down the street, hurrying forwards…_

Lelouch opened his eyes, turning instinctively as the front wall of the warehouse burst open. From the debris and wreckage a Knightmare Frame emerged, streamlined, with the markings of the Pureblood faction of the Brittannian military. It stood before the mess of corpses left behind by Lelouch's actions, its factsphere spinning out of its head to eye the warehouse that they were stationary inside.

The mecha leveled a long rifle onto him, the frame whirring with repressed power. A violent, feminine voice spoke over the machine's speakers, demanding.

"Who could have killed all these Royal Guards?" the woman piloting the mecha demanded. "What happened here, boy?" Lelouch briefly glanced at the reviving, apparently immortal girl behind him, before turning back to the Knightmare Frame and arching a fine eyebrow.

From inside her own Knightmare Frame, Villetta Nu felt strangely as if she had walked into the house of a vengeful, primordial god. An oppressive sensation filled the warehouse, almost like pure bloodlust and violence manifested into physical form. As the boy turned to her, she gripped her controls tightly, her right eyebrow ticking with nervousness.

"Are you deaf?" Villetta exclaimed, trying to mask her instinctual fear for fury, "Answer me or I'll…" her voice drifted as the boy made a sudden, aggressive motion, appearing to almost teleport right underneath her Knightmare Frame and glare up at her with eyes strangely glowing with an amber light, almost like hot embers stroked into a fury.

"Silence," the boy hissed. Villetta reflexively jerked on her controls and the Knightmare Frame gave a shuddering backwards half step, and the rifle lowered. Furiously, Villetta marshalled her fear and returned the gun to aim in the spot where the boy stood. Only, he had seemingly disappeared.

Suddenly, an alarm began shrieking in the cockpit of her Knightmare Frame, at the same time that the mech gave a lurch. From outside the mecha, the machine's right arm began squealing in agony. Wrapped around the length of the arm, holding his ground, Villetta could see through her factsphere that the teenager was pulling the Frame's arm at the wrong angle, so that the joint bent at a dangerous angle. Strangely, despite the incongruity that a human child could both match and surpass a Knightmare Frame's strength, the boy seemed to ignore all known laws of both biology, technology, and physics, actually pulling the Frame to its knees with all the ease of a child snapping a pretzel stick. With the shrieking of metal and her mech's alarms, the boy tore the Knightmare Frame's arm from its shoulder joint, ripping wires and metal apart with utmost ease.

Villetta screamed as her Knightmare Frame gave a heave, before falling to the ground with a resounding crash. The force of the fall jerked the dark skinned woman around in her seat, and her head smacked solidly into the corner of her console, making stars burst in her eyes. Dizzy, feeling somewhat concussed, Villetta struggled to find the eject button in her daze.

Before she could, however, the cockpit began squealing, the sound of tearing metal, before two, large hands burst through her console and tore a sizable hole into the cockpit. Then the hands turned, grasped the edges of the hole, and began tugging and jerking the hole wider.

Suddenly, the person on the other end, the…_monster_, ripped the entire wall and console connected to it out of the cockpit, before a youthful, handsome face appeared inside her cockpit, glowering down at her with a fiery gaze.

Villetta gave a terrified shriek. The boy reached forwards, and with all the tenderness of a grizzly attack, ripped her from the cockpit and threw her onto the floor of the warehouse. Villetta landed with a thump, hurrying to stand, but the boy was already upon her as she rose to her knees. With one smooth motion he reached down and grasped her with one hand around her neck, and then lifted her off the floor. Villetta choked at the strength of his grip and his callousness for her wellbeing. Of course, he had no reason to care. The boy leaned forwards to exam her face in the revealing light.

"I'm going to put you down now, and I'm going to ask you a question," Lelouch sneered, watching the woman's eyes widen as she struggled to try and pry his hand from her throat. "You _will_ answer…unless you want me to finish you off, now." As much pain as she was in, the woman nodded regardless of the hand clenched around her throat.

"Good."

Lelouch relaxed his hand and the woman dropped to her knees, gasping and clutching at her throat with a note of relief and surprise. Lelouch folded his arms over his chest, trying to impose his strength over the woman. It seemed that she instinctively understood his power over her and shied away from his gaze.

"Have you given your fealty to anyone, wench?" Lelouch questioned. The blue haired woman shook her head hurriedly, her body shaking.

"N-no," she uttered.

"Good," Lelouch stated. The woman's head jerked up to look at him, so Lelouch pointed down to the ground in front of him.

"I am Zero," Lelouch intoned, briefly reflecting onto the crystal that he had placed inside his coat's pocket after he had killed the royal guards. "If you wish to live," he continued, seeing her emotions flicker wildly upon her face. "Kneel before me and swear your loyalty to me…"

Afraid and at his not so tender mercies, the woman climbed down to kneel with her head down, prostrated upon the floor. Lelouch took time to drink in the sight of a prideful Brittanian soldier forced to accept her position as his subordinate, before shaking the dark feeling away.

"I, Villetta Nu," the woman started, a tremble in her voice, "D-do henceforth pledge my loyalty and my services to Zero forevermore. On the name of my forbearers and the soiled lands of my people, I pledge to only serve Zero in any way that he would require, and hope for no reward save for that which he would give me…" though she was trembling, her voice grew strength as she uttered her oath. Lelouch watched this, feeling that dark pleasure rise once more in his heart. He lowered himself from his aggressive stance and knelt down, offering his hand upon her shoulder so that she would look up into his face, startled.

"The conditions have been met, and now I do so humbly accept you into my service," Lelouch intoned, strangely feeling a compulsion rush over his senses, like an instinctual need. There was a part of the boy that felt as if he needed to spare her from his aggression. He marshalled his dark feelings and approached her with strange gentleness.

Lelouch knew the importance of information. Knew it, and anticipated it. With his first act from the moment of his awakening, Lelouch knew that he was on a direct course to oppose Brittannia. What better way to know his enemy then to learn of their movements from one of their soldiers?

That is why he had resisted the impulse to kill the woman and instead invoked an oath of fealty from her.

He smiled grimly down at the woman.

"T-thank y-you, milord," Villetta, as Lelouch now knew that the woman was called, stumbled over her words and bowed her head once more. Lelouch calmly touched her head, and urged her to lock gazes with him.

Lelouch looked over the woman, barely noticing her discomfort as she mistook his searching gaze for that of veiled lust. Instead, though, he was searching for her radio. For the briefest of moments, his vision shifted, and he could suddenly see through her body and into her bones. He mustered his strength over the strange phenomenon, focusing, and his x-ray sight pulled back the layers so he could see inside her pockets.

"There is much to be done now, Villetta," Lelouch explained, rising to his feet and offering her help to her own. She took his proffered hand and unsteadily stood to her own feet. Likely concussed, Lelouch helped steady the woman.

Seeing the offered help, Villetta glanced to her new lord questioningly, but Lelouch was looking towards the back of the warehouse, where a green haired young girl was watching them silently.

Turning to the soldier, Lelouch spoke.

"You're likely not going to enjoy this," Lelouch told her, his eyes holding a touch of sympathy and amusement, "But I'm afraid that I'm going to have to knock you out."

"Wha," Villetta started to say. Lelouch held a hand up to silence the woman.

"Be at ease," Lelouch explained. "It is all part of my plan. I need a way to listen in on the Brittannian radio traffic, and you've provided me the means to do so." He stepped aside, and folded his arms over his chest once more. "If you were knocked unconscious in the middle of your battle against a terrorist, barely escaping with your life, there would be seemingly no need to punish you. No, your shame for failing to kill an Eleven would be punishment enough," Villetta opened her mouth to speak, so Lelouch continued on with a sardonic smile on his face, "Yes, I may not be an Eleven in truth, but your Brittanian superiors need not know that. Depending on our actions, you might even find yourself advancing in rank…we will see," he stated. She closed her mouth.

"The battlefield is chaos. Losing a radio wouldn't be seen as such a terrible thing – you barely escaping with your life from a destroyed Knightmare Frame would be much more concerning. Blame your defeat on a masked man known as 'Zero', and your superiors will hurry to your aid…" he instructed. Villetta nodded, worrying her bottom lip. Lelouch watched the woman think over his ploy, before she gave a nod. He smirked. "Before this day is done, a new legend will be born. A demon has awakened in Shinjuku and before I am through all of Brittannia shall kneel before the might of Zero…"

Lelouch stepped towards the woman, reaching out with an open hand.

"Your radio, Miss Nu?" he prompted. Villetta hesitated a second before pulling her radio from her carryon pouch. Lelouch took it quietly, before looking back to the woman.

"Hmm…we'll need to make this much more believable," Lelouch proposed, walking around the woman so that he blocked her from the sight of the green haired girl. "Please shoot at me with your handgun. We'll need to put on a show to convince your superiors that you are still loyal…" Villetta paused, reaching to her holster to remove her handgun. She drew it from the holster, pointing it at the boy, but did not immediately fire. Lelouch arched an eyebrow. "Hmm…is something the matter?" he questioned.

"You…w-want me to shoot you?" Villetta asked, not understanding the order. Was he suicidal? Zero just laughed at her question.

"Yes. However, do not worry about my safety. There is nothing that you can do that will harm me," the boy known as Zero intoned. Villetta twitched with annoyance, fear, and rising fury.

"Fine!" she pulled the trigger.

A thunder crack roared in the small warehouse. Villetta watched as the muzzle of her gun flashed. She hoped fervently that he would die. However, on contact with his skin, the bullet pinged off into the darkness. Zero didn't even flinch.

Startled, terrified by the power of the boy, Villetta pulled the trigger several more times on impulse. Zero let her empty her clip upon his body, her bullets tearing his clothing bit by bit, but otherwise having no effect whatsoever. Once her handgun had emptied itself, Zero lunged at her.

His hand lashed across her right cheek with what felt like all the power of a locomotive, and she was flung back, back and back as her vision darkened with unconsciousness.

Lelouch straightened from his strike, curling his open hand into a fist and mashing it to his side. As Villetta's back hit the downed body of her Knightmare Frame, falling between its opened legs limply, Lelouch approached the woman and checked her form. She was alive, but she would be in pain for several days. Her face was already showing the makings of a massive bruise that caused the whole right side of her face to swell.

After determining that the soldier would be fine, Lelouch stood to his full height before casually reaching out to the custom Sutherland and pulling it down so that it nearly completely covered the blue haired woman's body but left enough space for her to breathe. There was enough space for someone to reach in and get into her pouch, so it would be easy for her superiors to believe that she had fallen from her destroyed cockpit and knocked herself unconscious from hitting the cement, and then whomever had destroyed her Knightmare Frame had taken it upon themselves to raid her pouch for her radio. With that, she would only get a light reprimand for failing to kill her opponent.

Satisfied with his work, Lelouch turned around to address the supposedly immortal green haired girl, only to find said girl had approached him during his distraction and was standing very close to him. The two traded expressions of surprise, before the girl's face became devoid of emotion as she titled her head slightly to the side in a gesture that would have brought up the feeling that she was curious if it wasn't for her blank expression that she wore.

"Err…you alright, then?" Lelouch stated. It was a stupid question, really.

The girl was known as C.C. She had been using that identity for the last hundred years or so after using initials from their names came into style with the other immortals of the world. She was a mystery even to those that she had reluctantly befriended.

She stood watching the boy who she knew as Lelouch vi Brittannia appoint his first vassal in the world, before knocking said vassal unconscious and collapsing a Knightmare Frame over her downed body. As she had stood sometime during his discussion with the soldier, C.C. silently approached the boy now that they were the only two still conscious and alive in the warehouse. He turned, and his surprise matched hers as they locked gazes. She marshalled her expression and stared blankly at him, tilting her head in the only expression of curiosity that she allowed to stretch across her features.

His question prompted a small laugh to come from her throat, her features changing to amusement, before they fell into a blank expression as her amusement disappeared. Lelouch appeared to be unamused with his slip. It was adorable on his youthful features.

His expression changed to one to surprise as he peered at her face.

"You…you are…" he growled, and she could almost see the memories crashing across his mind. Something like anger, agony, and betrayal crossed over his face. Before she could realize it, Lelouch had caught her around the arms and was shaking her furiously.

"C.C.! You are C.C., right!" he demanded. C.C. arched her eyebrows at the almost panicked tone in his voice.

"Yes," she tested. Lelouch breathed deeply, obviously in an effort to calm himself, before releasing her arms. C.C. glanced down to her arms and saw that she had hand shaped bruises around her biceps and triceps. "Strong," she reiterated in amazement.

Lelouch snorted. C.C. glanced up to see him watching her.

"I remember you," Lelouch stated, glowering at her, "You were there – you helped me adjust to my developing powers…but I forgot…why?" he demanded. C.C. resisted the urge to grimace.

"There are many things that remain a mystery even today, people, places, and…powers, that lay hidden beneath the normal world," C.C. explained, though it was a half explanation. She didn't want to have to explain geass to a person who she seemed to be unable to form a contract with. She didn't know why his memories had returned and the contract had failed when she tried, but she had some theories that she was working on…

Lelouch thought on her words for a second, before frowning. "Are you trying to insult me? Do you honestly think that I would be happy with you lying to me?" he questioned. C.C. accepted his suspicious gaze without any noticeable reaction. Yes, she reflected, she probably wasn't giving him enough credit. Of course a boy who had lost his mother, been abandoned by his family, and forced to raise his little sister would be distrustful. However, it was instinctual for her to be very careful with her secrets…

"I see that we have much that needs to be settled between us before we can work together," she stated. Lelouch contained his anger and stepped back away from her.

"Partners?" Lelouch tested the word on his tongue. He narrowed his eyes. "What reason do you have to wish to be _my_ partner?" he questioned.

C.C. held his gaze, before, very purposely shrugging her small shoulders.

"I have my reasons," C.C. stated plainly, refusing to avoid his eyes self-consciously. "For one, even though my captors had been experimenting on me in secret from the Emperor of Britannia, do you really think that I have a much better future in store if I was captured once again by your birth country?" she prompted. After a second he shook his head, so she continued. "Also, I'd really like to teach Charles a lesson, and what better way can I do that than by helping his wayward son ruin his plans. You _do_ want to destroy Britannia, don't you?" she prompted from him now.

After a second, Lelouch nodded.

"Finally…despite myself, you interest me," C.C. explained, deciding to admit one of her secrets to the boy as a show of good faith. "I've had an eye on you since you were a child. Of course, you were always under Charles', Marianne's, or V.V.'s watchful eyes, and so I could never properly approach you…but that isn't a problem now, is it?" she asked.

On his part, Lelouch listened to the immortal's explanation, with various conflicting emotions held deep in his heart. When she finished, Lelouch thought on everything discussed between them before, finally, reluctantly giving a nod of acceptance.

"Very well, do what you want," Lelouch told her, narrowing his eyes, "However, even though I am putting my trust in you with my secrets, I expect you to keep them as if they were your own. I may not be able to kill you, but I can make your life _very_ uncomfortable, understand?"

For her credit, the immortal didn't appear to be concerned with his threat, which wasn't surprising. Torture and death threats were probably nothing to a woman who had lived through much worse, but Lelouch was determined to make her regret betraying him if she so chose. Finally, the woman that he knew as C.C. from his long forgotten memories gave a nod.

"Of course," C.C. intoned in acceptance, "I would expect nothing less from the son of _that man_…" Lelouch felt his fury rising again at the allusion to his most hated origins. He resisted the urge to show his anger, however, and instead motioned to the open hole in the wall.

"I can trust that you can take care of yourself, correct?" Lelouch asked. C.C. nodded. "I need to move. I'll need to act soon," he said more to himself. The Girl nodded, preceding him to the hole in the wall.

"Are you sure that you are ready to taunt Brittannia?" C.C. turned to him as he stepped up to the hole alongside her. "Powerful you may be, but a god you are not. Are you sure that you want to step out of the obviously comfortable lifestyle that you currently live?" she motioned to his torn and worn school uniform. A dark expression passed over Lelouch's face.

"I must," Lelouch stated, barely contained hatred and fury coiling in his voice, like a serpent, "If I don't, then who will? Someone has to step forward and say 'No more'. Might as well be someone who can take Brittannia's punishment?"

"Your conviction is strong," C.C. stated, and he glanced to her, to see that she was watching him, like a hawk. "However, is Nunnally ready?" after saying this, she retreated from him before he could answer, disappearing into the broken ruins of Shinjuku Ghetto.

Left to his own devices, Lelouch stood in the middle of the street, thinking on the woman's words. Indecision parted his strong conviction, but he refused to back down. Something primal and rebellious, like the potent rage of the oppressed welled up in his gut. It sunk into his veins and spread throughout his body. A red haze filled his vision as he remembered the nightmare that had been Japan's invasion. When he finally regained control of his erratic emotions, he found that he was hovering high over the rooftops of the ruins of Shinjuku Ghetto.

Instead of panicking as was his first gut instinct to finding himself ignoring the laws of gravity, Lelouch simply immersed himself in examining every aspect of his body.

A compulsion passed over him, and he found himself lowering towards a rooftop. He examined the curious sensation of flight as he traveled to the rooftop, noting how similar it felt to flexing a muscle. On a whim, Lelouch examined the surroundings around the rooftop until he spotted a nearby caravan of soldiers. Nearly a meter from the roof, his course suddenly changed as he impulsively flexed the "muscle" that propelled him and launched his body through the air.

He easily glided to a nearby rooftop overlooking the caravan, who was sweeping through the streets with the purpose of executing any Elevens that they came across. Furious at the casual disregard of human life, Lelouch felt now familiar heat funnel into his eyes. He welcomed the power, and focused on the nearest soldier.

Heat poured out of his eyes like a canon. Twin beams of fire swept across the caravan and removed the head of the soldier that he was focusing on. The group jumped into action, hunting from their assailant. One of the soldiers in the caravan's Humvee reached for the radio.

Time stood still for Lelouch, his perception of the world dilating as he immersed himself in his many strange powers and launched himself over the roof. Faster than a bullet, Lelouch crashed into the ground, the force causing a shockwave that uprooted the street and sent the Humvee and the soldiers scattering in a panic. Before anyone could stop him he sped to the Humvee's door and jammed his fingers into the metal of the door, and ripped it clean out of the vehicle. Then he swept his arm down into the driver's seat and removed the lone soldier.

Lelouch's arms blurred as he shook the soldier so rapidly that his brains liquefied in his skull and dripped down his nostrils. Letting the now dead man drop back into the driver's seat, Lelouch sped through the ranks of soldiers and easily dispatched them by chopping his hand down in an open strike that crushed their skulls in one move.

All this had taken place in only under a minute. He likely could have sped up the process if he was comfortable with his new powers, but since his only experience with them was as a child when they were much weaker and not as varied, he wasn't comfortable using them just yet.

His job done, Lelouch went to the Humvee and ripped the doors from the back. Inside, he found an assortment of equipment, everything from medical supplies and ammunitions, to spare uniforms. It was the armor that he focused on, and a brief check showed that they had his size. As with what would become the usual for the boy, he super sped through changing, his form a blur of colors, until he stopped, now fully dressed in the typical armor gifted to the cannon fodder of the Brittannian army.

Dressed for combat, Lelouch stepped out of the Humvee, before, with a quick sweep of the area with his newly dubbed "Heat Vision", he reduced the bodies and the vehicle to piles of ashes, or in the Humvee's case, a smoldering pile of metal. Done with that, Lelouch through his new, mental "muscle" in charge of his ability for flight into action, and launched himself into the air.

In the sky, Lelouch turned several times in place to get an ideal of the battlefield, before reaching into his pocket and removing the terrorist's radio that he had placed with Brittannia's radio. Turning the device on, he listened to the chatter, getting an ideal of the battlefield. He focused on his eyes and ears as he soared over Shinjuku Ghetto, hunting for the terrorists. As if in response to his actions, he suddenly felt his senses spreading out to hear everything going on in the Ghetto and beyond, while he found his eyes suddenly could see off far into the distance.

Ruthlessly, Lelouch wrested control over his new powers until he could focus onto specific noises and sights, and in conjunction with his also new X-Ray vision, Lelouch was able to easily locate the terrorists locked in different battles throughout the Ghetto.

With a thought, Lelouch disappeared in a blur.

XXX

Suzaku awoke with a start, to find a man wearing glasses and possessing a head of fair hair smiling down over his face.

"So, are we having a bad day?" the man asked, stepping away from the teenager up beside a woman with blue hair. He clapped his hands. "Looks like you missed your chance to go to heaven, Private Kururugi."

Suzaku's face blanched. "I did?" then he noticed the room that he was in. He blinked in surprise. "Where?" he asked, looking around the room. The man noticed the lack of attention.

"Hmm?" he smiled. "Ah, we're still in the Shinjuku Ghetto."

The woman spoke up.

"With Prince Clovis nearby this is probably the safest place anywhere." She reached into her pocket and pulled out a broken pocket watch. "This is what saved your life, Mr. Suzaku."

The man with the glasses laughed. "You're lucky it was under your protective suit because that what deflected the bullet."

The woman smiled in an effort to comfort the teenager. "Is it a keepsake?"

Suzaku took the pocket watch from the woman and sighed.

"Yeah, very," he said thankfully.

The man wearing the glasses seemed to perk up. "You Elevens have gods that live in everything, even objects, don't you?" He seemed to think of something funny, chuckling. "I guess this one –" but Suzaku interrupted him, looking down at the pocket watch with a dark expression on his face.

"Is Lelou –" in the process of asking his question, Suzaku seemed to think better of it. His mouth shut quietly. Both the man and woman visiting glanced to each other at his reaction. Suzaku then asked, "What is the latest on the situation?"

"It looks like the poison gas was released," Suzaku blinked in surprise, not expecting that answer. What was he talking about? Both Suzaku and Lelouch had _seen_ what was inside the container of supposed poison gas. "Massive Eleven causalities have been reported."

"They haven't caught the perpetrators yet." The blue haired woman who came to see him supplied. Suzaku's features darkened again.

"They haven't? Not yet?" Suzaku asked, thinking of Lelouch, who had been faced with the possibility of being executed by Clovis's Royal Guard for witnessing what was inside the container that had imprisoned that girl. What happened to him?

The man in the glasses interrupted him.

"Private Kururugi, how much experience do you have in piloting a Knightmare Frame?" the man questioned.

Suzaku looked up, distracted. "Not much. Every Brittannian Soldier goes through the simulators, even an Honorary Britannian like me. However, there's no way that an Eleven would be made to pilot a Knightmare Frame…" he stated sourly.

The man nodded, seemingly having thought of that. "Supposing you could?" at Suzaku's exasperated expression the man removed a highly decorated, golden Knightmare Frame key. He presented it to the boy with a flourish. "Congratulations! A one of a kind Knightmare Frame awaits you!" Surprised and a little wary, Suzaku took the key with notable hesitance. The man in the lab coat continued. "Once you take the controls of this beauty everything will change; you and your world…"

The woman spoke up.

"Whether you want it or not…"

With that ominous statement, Suzaku was indoctrinated as the pilot of the experimental Knightmare Frame: Lancelot.

XXX

Kallen pushed hard on her controls, wheeling her Glasgow down the street and trying to avoid her pursuer's gunfire. Her Glasgow was beat, one arm having been ejected from the body, and her only weapons being removed from her control. Even her slash harkens had been damaged beyond repair…

Kallen glanced to her console, cursing a storm.

"Just thirty minutes left!" That was just fucking great. Ever since they began this job, nothing seemed to be going right. First Tamaki had gone off the plan and exposed them to the Brittannian military, and now the whole of Shinjuku Ghetto was swimming with Brittanian assholes wanting to take potshots at them.

Kallen had to jerk her controls to avoid a particularly close exchange of bullets.

"The west entrance," a calm, smooth voice spoke over her radio, catching her attention immediately, both because of the fact that he had even managed to get a hold of their frequency and that he seemed particularly calm about it. "Use the tracks to move to the west entrance." Kallen mashed onto the send button on her radio, shouting into it.

"Who is this? How do you know this code?" she demanded.

"That doesn't matter," the voice stated confidently, waving her concerns aside. "If you want to win, you're just going to have to trust me." With that, the radio fell silent, and no matter how many times she depressed the button to scream over the radio at him, he never answered her.

In a huff, and without anything else to do but trust the voice, Kallen turned and jumped onto the tracks running beside her, a dark look on her face.

"To win?" she wondered aloud.

"Okay, what am I supposed to do now?" she demanded over the radio.

"You pathetic Eleven," a menacing voice said over her pursuer's outside speakers. "If you simply run away, this hunt hasn't much to offer in the way of sport." Kallen scowled at what the Brittannian asshole claimed. However, she couldn't exactly turn around and confront them, as she would surely day in the conflict.

The radio sparked with life again.

"Since you trusted me, you're going to win." The voice said confidently.

She heard the blare of a horn ahead of her, and as she turned her attention to the tracks, she saw a train making its way down the tracks directly at her and her Brittannian pursuers.

"Jump onto the train!" the voice shouted. She followed without question.

"Gotcha!" she roared, hitting the controls and sending her stolen Glasgow hurtling up onto the train.

As she squealed down the train on her landspinners, she heard one of her pursuers follow her up onto the train while the other caught it to slow the train to a stop. She turned her Glasgow around though as she heard a sound as if a roar pass over the space behind her. The sight that greeted her was the image of the Sutherland that had followed her sliding into two pieces from the waist up, the cut almost appearing to be made by a molten sword.

She could see the other Sutherland looking at a point on a nearby rooftop, and as she turned her Glasgow to spot the distant speck the enemy soldier piloting the Sutherland shouted out over his outer speakers.

"What the…?" from the sound of it, he had left his mic on, so didn't know that she could hear him. "Shot by friendly fire?" she doubted that. However, he continued on, anyways, obviously trying to talk over the radio now. "You there, what is your name and your unit? We're after the one armed Glasgow!" Two pulses of red hot beams of heat cut through the air, and it was only the Brittannian soldier's superior reflexes that allowed him dodge the beams of enflamed oxygen. Kallen reacted on instinct, speeding towards the Sutherland while screaming.

"Oh my god! A Terrorist!" the pilot shouted. Kallen rushed him, bringing down the remaining arm of her Sutherland at the enemy Frame.

"Aaaaah!"

"You son of a –" There was a flash of red that pulsed out from the nearby rooftop and sliced across the enemy's legs. His backward movement was suddenly halted. Exalted at the chance, Kallen brought her Glasgow's arm down, satisfied as it tore through the opposing Knightmare Frame. The only downside to the moment of triumphant was the fact that she knew that she hadn't killed her enemy, as he had ejected the moment it appeared that he was going to die. Typical Brittannian scum, she thought, scowling.

Gratefully, Kallen began to turn her stolen Glasgow to her savior. "You saved me," she sent her thanks to her savior over the radio, "But where did you manage to get a hold of a sniper type Knightmare Frame," she began to ask, before she realized that the speck on the nearby rooftop that had been her savior had disappeared. "What? Where did he go?"

"Kallen!" a familiar voice interrupted her thoughts, and she turned to see Ohgi and the others running to the train. "Who the hell was that voice on the radio, earlier?"

Kallen gasped in surprise. She answered them over the Glasgow's outer speakers.

"What? He contacted you, too?"

She saw Ohgi nod grimly.

"Sure did. And Yoshida's group out ought to be here, soon." He told her.

They were interrupted by the voice returning over Ohgi's radio.

"Are you in charge?" the voice asked Ohgi.

"Ah, yeah," Ohgi stated, his voice sounding somewhat awkward.

The voice continued.

"I present to you the cargo in that train over there." The voice waited for them to open the train, and when they did everyone gasped in surprise and awe.

"They're the tools for your victory." He explained. "If you want to use them to win, then follow my orders."

Kallen listened as her fellow resistance members all marveled over their "gift" and started discussing what they should do. Kallen knew that this mysterious "voice" had hit all the right points to get them to follow without question…for now, at least.

"All this? But how?" The red haired girl wondered aloud.

"Woman in the Glasgow!" the voice exclaimed over her radio. Kallen jumped, superstitiously thinking for a single instant that he had somehow heard her despite her not using her radio at all.

"Y-yes!" she said back into her radio.

"Stay where you are," he told her. "Your unit is going to run decoy. You got that?" he questioned.

"Understood." Kallen set her shoulders, mustering her courage.

"Since your energy filler is low, refill it with the replacement energy filler in the train," Kallen's eyes widened, amazed and afraid to learn that he somehow knew what was going on in her cockpit. She searched the area that her Knightmare Frame was standing at, and even superstitiously checked over her shoulder inside the cockpit.

"Good." He stated with a note of amusement in his voice. "In ten minutes, I'll contact you with new instructions…" then the radio fell silent once more.

XXX

Lelouch scowled, listening to the cries of his soldiers as they were massacred slowly and steadily. Lelouch knew what the cause was, having watched as the White Knightmare Frame had sped into the Ghetto with the sole purpose of decimating the terrorist forces. A brief check with his X-Ray vision gave him a happy surprise, before that was drowned out by his displeasure of having his efforts ruined.

Suzaku was alive.

Lelouch didn't know how such a thing was possible, but he was glad to see the other teenager had survived his brief confrontation with the Royal Guard. What he was doing here, piloting a new, experimental Knightmare Frame was anyone's guess.

Lelouch maneuvered his allies around Suzaku's new Knightmare, trying to gauge its capabilities. He had conquered nearly all of the Ghettos by listening in on the Britannian radio transmissions and counteracting their strategies. Suzaku's Knightmare Frame was an unknown variable, and so Lelouch tested its abilities and the abilities of its pilot by cautiously sending a few units of Sutherlands to intercept him. When he was sure that his allies couldn't defeat the new, formidable foe, Lelouch picked his stolen radio up and pressed it to his lips.

"All units; retreat and abandon your Knightmare Frames," Lelouch told everyone over the radio. He could hear with his super powered hearing how all the terrorists reacted to his orders, some indignant, some alarmed. "This is an enemy that none of you can win against," he explained, his eyes darkening. "Therefore, I shall be his opponent." He turned off his radio, and stepped up to the edge of the rooftop to look down at the street below him. The White Knightmare Frame was now just making his way onto the street.

Lelouch felt his body tense in preparation. He trusted that his new powers could give him the advantage to defeat Suzaku's prototype Knightmare Frame. It was powerful, but Lelouch felt strangely confident that he could deal with it. There was also an unusual feeling rising inside the exiled prince's heart…an anticipation, as if something primal wished to lock blows with his old friend. What was this feeling?

Down below, Suzaku's Frame began to approach, not noticing Lelouch's presence at the top of the building. Lelouch called forth the heat in his eyes, feeling the power rising with the burning sensation. As he felt it collecting, Lelouch instinctively pulled a mental trigger in his mind, and felt the flames burst from his gaze.

Some battle hardened instinct inside Suzaku saved the Japanese boy. Just before his Frame was destroyed by the super-heated beams, Suzaku's Frame suddenly lurched as he directed it to dodge away. Fire exploded in the middle of street, molten tar bubbling and spitting. The White Knightmare Frame turned its head upwards, its factsphere taking in the sight of Lelouch's armored body.

"You!" Suzaku roared over the Frame's outside speakers, "Are you the one in charge?" he demanded.

Lelouch called forth his power of flight and launched himself from the rooftop. The combination of distance and Suzaku's superior reflexes saved the youth again, as he jerked on the controls inside his cockpit and sent the Knightmare Frame flipping across the pavement directly to the left of him. Lelouch hit the ground, hard enough to send a tidal wave across the street. Suzaku did a complex flip with his Knightmare Frame, and launched his slash harkens at the super powered youth.

Lelouch reached out and snatched the two slash harkens out of the air, and with a powerful tug he brought Suzaku's Knightmare Frame crashing to the ground. Instead of simply going with the motion and damaging his Frame, Suzaku's reflexes saved him again as he sent the White Knightmare Frame into a roll that carried him passed Lelouch.

Coming out of the roll, Suzaku turned around to cautiously examine the frighteningly powerful man. He didn't know where he could have come from, or why he was helping the terrorists, but Suzaku refused to let him continue. Lelouch's fate rested on him…if he could defeat this man and put an end to the fighting, he could go out and search for his missing friend…

Setting his shoulders, Suzaku charged.

On the other side of the street, hidden behind a building, Kallen watched with wide eyes as the battle between the White Knightmare Frame and the super powered, armored man that she was sure had been the reason for her group's success so far ensued.

The armored man rose into the air with seemingly no regard for the laws of physics. He met the White Knightmare Frame head on, avoiding the way it lashed out at him with its hands and battle knife. The man always seemed just slightly faster than the Frame, just always barely avoiding the blows. Kallen doubted that she could keep up with the White Knightmare Frame with her Glasgow, and yet the armored man was able to weave between its strikes on his own power.

Then, suddenly, the armored man struck, his fist crashing into the face of the White Knightmare with a thunderous crack. Then the White Knightmare Frame crashed into the adjacent buildings, struggling to rise, with its factsphere severely damaged.

This seemed to be the turning point in their fight, if it could even be called a fight.

As its factsphere was damaged, the White Knightmare Frame couldn't see the armored man, and so, fumbled around blindly in an effort to find him. The armored man took full advantage of this, raining down an endless amount of powerful blows that created indents and tore through joints and the awesome armor of the powerful machine. Then, kneeling down underneath the mech, the man suddenly surged upwards, his hands catching hold of the White Knightmare Frame's middle, before taking it up with him into the air.

Over the highest point in the Shinjuku Ghetto they rose, and even higher than that, climbing further and further into the sky until they both were a distant speck even to the superior visual prowess of a Knightmare Frame. Then, they suddenly turned around and started to descend to the ground rapidly, faster than any bullet.

In seconds, they crashed into the street that they had been fighting on, the armored man driving the White Knightmare into the ground with the comparable force of a bomb going off. The strength and momentum of the blow was such that it caused buildings all across the Ghettos to collapse, their fragile supports unable to take the strain. In the center of the street, a crater had formed, baring the ruined remains of the White Knightmare Frame, and the triumphant shape of the armored man standing over it.

The man, obviously the physical manifestation of the voice that had led them to conquer all of the Ghetto, loomed over the Frame, watching, waiting to see if it would continue the attack, but when no movement came for several minutes he suddenly nodded and rose up with all the casual disdain for the laws of nature as he had beforehand, and took off into the sky.

Kallen watched him disappear, her core beliefs shaken at the presence of such a powerful man…if he could even be classified that. Watching him utterly destroy the White Knightmare had been like watching the wrath of a god baring judgment down upon a foolish more who dared to wave a stick at him in challenge. He had utterly swept aside all of the Knightmare Frame's attempts to attack him, and consumed him in a wave of violence that the pilot would be lucky to have survived from.

Terrified, Kallen knew that she had to immediately tell Ohgi and the others of this change, and immediately took off.

At that very same time, a bruised and bloody Suzaku climbed out of the Lancelot, looking off into the distance where the mysterious armored man had disappeared into the sky. It had seemed as if the man had been heading in the direction of the HQ…but since he hadn't been given his own radio, and the radio in the Lancelot was destroyed with all the other incredibly advanced and probably _very_ expensive equipment, Suzaku knew that he couldn't warn anyone, either…

XXX

Lelouch pounded onto the reinforced steel doors of the command center, testing its strength and whether he felt as if he could overcome it. After varying the forces of his blows to get an accurate read of its strength, he suddenly thrust his hands through the thick door made of metal. The sound of shrieking metal filled the small hallway as he gripped the edges, and then, with a mighty tug, he pried open the hole larger until he managed to open the hole enough to step through…

Completely disregarding that he had done something that no mortal man should be capable of doing as casually as wiping his nose, while also completely disregarding the fact that he looked like a nightmare given form as he was covered from head to toe in blood and gore.

"Good evening, everyone," He offered to the room at large, taking the time to determine where his brother, Clovis la Brittannia was standing, cowering in fear at his display and image. "I would like to ask that if anyone doesn't wish to die an immensely painful death, or isn't Prince Clovis la Brittannia himself, please leave the room." At his words, a literal stampede of technicians and nobles passed him as they fled from the room, utterly terrified of his person. Lelouch was left only with Clovis himself, a fat, balding man, and a small scattering of either really stupid or really brave guards.

As Lelouch started to stride over to Clovis, his entourage of guards surrounded him and opened fire on the super powered teenagers. Bullets whizzed by and pinged off his body, the only damage being the denting and tears of his body armor. He could see the fat man stepping away in fear.

When Lelouch was in front of the two closest guards, he grabbed their arms into his iron grip and literally tore each of their arms in his hands from their shoulders. A deluge of blood spewed from their sockets, flooding the other men around them. Then, with a snap of his foot, he kicked the two men into the wall, where they fell lifelessly to the floor. Then he turned to glower at the rest of the guards, who backed away in obvious fear as they finally understood how useless it was to resist him.

"Get," he ordered, jerking his head to indicate the torn open door. The guards instantly sprang from the room without question.

Lelouch approached Clovis's form confidently, and just a tad bit arrogantly. Once he stopped close enough that he could reach out and touch his half-brother, he stopped and coolly regarded Clovis with a titled head.

"Clovis la Brittannia," Lelouch greeted. Clovis blinked in sudden awareness and looked up to fearfully eye Lelouch's armored form.

"Who are you?" Clovis asked. Lelouch threw back his head and laughed.

"I am…ZERO!" Lelouch roared. At the shout, Clovis fell out of his seat, with wide eyes and a pale, terrified face.

"W-what do you want?" Clovis asked. The hidden, exiled prince chuckled.

"First, you can call off the massacre in Shinjuku," Lelouch listed. "That's a very unsavory bit of business, and one that I really don't want to have to clean up myself." He motioned to himself. Clovis took in the sight of his blood covered armor, before hastening to comply, going to his communication center and gave the order to halt their attack on the Ghetto. Once done, Clovis spun around and aimed a handgun between Lelouch's eyes.

With renewed courage provided by the feeling of the familiar weight of a gun in his hand, Clovis demanded, "Who are you? How did you get in here?" It almost appeared as if Clovis hadn't noticed when Lelouch had burst into the command center. "Did you have something to do with the terrorist defeating my army?" Clovis shouted. Lelouch chuckled.

"Yes," and before Clovis could speak again, Lelouch interrupted him. "Do you know who killed Lady Marianne vi Brittannia?" Clovis scowled.

"I'm the one giving the questions here!" Clovis gestured with his gun for emphasis. Seeing that Clovis's new confidence was detrimental to his purposes, Lelouch blurred his hand forwards and slapped the gun from his hands. It skittered across the floor. Lelouch ignored it.

"None of that, now," stated Lelouch, crossing his arms over his chest and trying to draw his height up to intimidate the other man. It seemed to be working. "I'll ask again, before I start breaking your bones. Do you know who killed Lady Marianne?"

"N-no," Clovis hasted to answer. "Father called off the investigation after a few weeks, but Cornelia was in charge of it, so she might know something. Schneizel always seems to know what is going on in the court, so he might know something if Cornelia doesn't…" Clovis explained to Lelouch. Lelouch listened to his brother's explanation, somewhat wanting to believe him. After a few minutes, Lelouch realized that there didn't appear to be anything that he could find at fault with Clovis's explanation, and so nodded his head in acceptance.

"Alright," Lelouch drawled. He then turned about on his heels. "Anyways, that's all that I really wanted to know…" Lelouch took a few steps, before thinking better of it, and turning back to his brother. "I suppose after this debacle I can't simply forgive your actions," he sighed. Clovis was paling at the implications. "However, if you resign from your position as Viceroy of Area Eleven, I will choose not to harass you. If, however, you choose to ignore my rather _generous_ offer, I will have to take suitable action. Understand?" at these words, Clovis gave a strained smile.

"Y-yeah, s-sure…" Clovis agreed. A gunshot suddenly roared in the small, quiet room, followed by the sound of a bullet pinging off of Lelouch's invulnerable body. Lelouch whirled his head around to stare at the offender, seeing Bartley's slowly paling, horrified face. Lelouch took a step towards the man before Clovis gurgled and fell to the ground. Lelouch whirled to his half-brother to see a pool of blood forming underneath him.

"Clovis!" Lelouch exclaimed, diving to pick up his dying half-brother in his arms and gently cradle the older man's head in his hands. Clovis opened his eyes to smile weakly at the armored boy, blood trailing from his lips.

"You hold such sympathy for your enemy…who are you?" Clovis gasped in wonder. He raised a hand to run it across Lelouch's visor, spreading more blood onto the teenager's body. "Certainly not an Eleven…Perhaps a Brittannian then," Clovis claimed. Then he weakly chuckled, gasping in pain because of his amusement. He looked up at Lelouch imploringly. "Will you not show me your face?" He pleaded.

"Y-yes," How could Lelouch ignore a dying man's request? How could he ignore his dying _brother's_ request? Though Lelouch had hated the majority of his family as a child, and even now as an adult, Clovis had always been kind to him and his sister, and often played with the two…

Reaching up to his visor, Lelouch pushed it up, showing his face to his dying brother. It seemed to bring Clovis some measure of comfort, the prince sighing happily at the familiar face that greeted him.

"I…should have known," Clovis shook his head weakly and gave a chuckle, obviously appreciating the irony. "Of course you would have a reason to hate Brittannia more than any other. I'm only sad that I would be reunited with you after so long only to leave you so soon…" a tear slipped down from the dying prince's right eye. "Please let her know that I love her, will you?"

"I-I will," Lelouch struggled to say, his pain particularly physical as he clutched his weakening brother to his body. Thinking of how Nunnally would react to Clovis's death, or that he was thinking of her even as he was dying, that just made his pain all the worse, because it would practically break the girl's spirit.

"Thank you." Clovis then shut his eyes and stilled. Seeing that his brother had died, fury and pain mingled inside Lelouch's heart and rose up into his throat. The scream that followed, as Lelouch roared his pain into the air drowned out all noise in the Ghetto.

Only when he looked up, did Lelouch realize that the man who had killed his brother had fled.

To Be Continued…

Author's Note:

So, yeah, a lot has changed in this chapter from the original. Most of it got rewritten, to fit my new writing style. And a new scene was added, and most of the other scenes were either changed to a different character's perspective, or were changed so much that they had almost no similarities to the original scene.

I hope that you all enjoy it as much as I enjoyed rewriting it. There's still a lot more chapters to rewrite, but I hope to have rewritten them sometime soon…I don't know when, though.

**PAIRINGS:**

_Lelouch/Harem:_

_Wives: Nunnally/C.C./Kallen/Sayoko/Kara/Powergirl/Milly/Euphemia/Shirley/Wonder Woman_

_Concubines: Cornelia/Kaguya/Maxima/Villetta/Cecile/Rakshata/Nonette/Tianzi_

_Mistresses: Poison Ivy/Raven_

**OTHER PAIRINGS:**

_Rolo (Superman/Ultraman)/Lucy Lane/Anya Alstriem (Knight of Six)_

_Ohgi Kaname/Lois Lane_

_Suzaku Kururugi/Guinevere su Britannia (First Princess)/Carine ne Britannia (Fifth Princess)/Dorthea Ernst (Knight of Four)_

As always, review and leave me your thoughts.

Ta.

Professor Image.

Disclaimer: I do NOT own the Code Geass franchise or Superman or DC comic. Sunrise, Bandai and Funimation own the rights to the Code Geass franchise. Warner Bros. owns the rights to Superman and DC comics. I have made no monetary gain off of this work of fiction. I wrote this story with entertainment purposes in mind only. Please do not sue.

**EDIT: THIS CHAPTER HAS BEEN REWRITTEN! PLEASE REREAD IF YOU WISH TO UNDERSTAND SOME OF THE PLOT OF THE NEW "CODE DC" UNIVERSE!**

Summary: People handle power differently. Suddenly finding himself with god-like powers, Lelouch vi Britannia learns what it means to be human. Britannia will soon come to fear the Spawn of Zod.

Enjoy:

Code DC:

Lal-Zod of Krypton

Chapter III

Scion

XXX

Finding the home of her long lost ward was surprisingly easy. She had briefly checked the nearest internet café for any family friends of the vi Brittannia children for possible places of refuge, and had happily stumbled across the Ashford academy. She had caught the heiress of the family unawares as she left the school grounds, and did a scan of her surface thoughts. As she had expected, the girl knew about Lelouch and was giving him asylum. With that in mind, she had dug deeper into the girl's memories until she discovered where her old ward and his sister lived.

Showing up unannounced on their doorstep was admittedly very suspicious, but she had wanted to catch Lelouch as soon as he returned home. Nunnally had been rather inviting, especially since C.C. had claimed to be Lelouch's girlfriend. Sayoko Shinozaki on the other hand was much more challenging to brush off. Thankfully, Nunnally had managed to calm the woman by asking C.C. private information about her brother. From what she had been able to glean from interacting with him and the scan of his surface thoughts when she had tried to form the contract with him earlier that day, and from what she knew of his childhood as she acted as his caretaker, C.C. had been able to guess some of the answers to Nunnally's questions.

Some of the things that Nunnally asked would have been embarrassing if C.C. hadn't grown accustomed to ignoring human emotions. A thousand years of tragedy upon tragedy could certainly wear a person down, so she developed quite an extensive knowledge of holding her emotions at arm's length.

Nunnally was gently prodding, though, and her innocence even as she asked C.C. whether or not the witch and her brother had had sex yet was quite startling. They were broken apart by Sayoko coughing, and telling the younger girl that it was her bed time. Nunnally had relented, only asking C.C. one last thing.

"It's rather obvious that you've only been in a relationship with my big brother for a little while. I just want to say that there are some things about my brother that I'm not privy to, some things that I'm sure he keeps from me to protect me. If you stay with him, and if he tells you these secrets, you could be put in danger. Do you still wish to remain with my brother?" Though Nunnally was not quite looking at C.C., merely turning her head to the green haired woman, C.C. got the impression that Nunnally could see things about her personality that even she was unaware of.

She was dangerous, C.C. decided. It must run in the family.

"Yes," the immortal said without hesitation. Normally, she would not busy herself with people that she could not form a geass with, but there was something about Lelouch that called him to her, even when he was a child. She was very interested in seeing the tale that he would weave into the world in the near future.

Nunnally titled her head slightly in C.C.'s direction, her mouth opening with a hum of thoughtfulness, before she nodded.

"It's okay," the girl told Sayoko, patting the maid's hand that lay upon her left shoulder, "I trust her." Sayoko glared at C.C. for several moments more before wheeling the younger girl upstairs. Left alone to her own devices, C.C. went about finding Lelouch's room. She just stepped up off the stairs when she was thrust into a wall and a blade was pressed into her pale throat.

"Who are you?" Sayoko hissed.

"I thought that I made that very clear, earlier," C.C. droned, eyeing the Japanese woman from the corner of her vision. Sayoko pressed the muzzle of a gun to the witch's breast, over her heart.

"I take Lelouch-sama's and Nunnally-sama's safety very seriously, C.C.-san," Sayoko stated, and jerked her hand forward to slam the blade of her knife several inches into the wall beside C.C.'s head, leaving a small, red cut across the green haired woman's cheek. "Let's try this again, shall we? Who are you and what do you really want with Lelouch-sama and Nunnally-sama?"

"Oh, pooh," C.C. stated tonelessly and presenting a completely untroubled exterior to the Japanese woman despite Sayoko's obvious threat to her life. "You are pretty sharp, for a maid. What are you, a ninja or something?"

"Kunoichi," Sayoko corrected, "A female ninja."

"What's a gal like you doing working for an exiled Prince and Princess of the Brittannia Empire?" C.C. pointed out.

"I was hired by Milly Ashford-sama before I began working for Lelouch-sama and Nunnally-sama. I was to be both Milly-sama's bodyguard and caretaker. I was then hired to protect and care for Lelouch-sama and Nunnally-sama per Milly-sama's wishes…" she explained.

"Is that so?" C.C. turned head, but otherwise kept very still as she eyed the other woman. "Seems a bit of a waste…shouldn't you be in some other country, seducing and assassinating powerful men?" C.C. pointed out.

"I'm an apprentice, still. I could never finish my training while working for Lelouch-sama and Nunnally-sama," Sayoko stated. C.C. nodded.

"The Shinozaki clan," C.C. stated. Sayoko responded by grabbing the immortal by the arms and turning her around. Before C.C. had time to react, the ninja maid had wrapped her arms up behind her.

C.C. was dragged to Sayoko's room, which C.C. could see had been outfitted with as much surveillance tech as possible. Sayoko threw the witch down to the floor and wrapped her legs up. C.C. could see that the kunoichi was using just regular rope. Unconcerned for her health, C.C. let the woman do as she liked. Sayoko retreated to the other corner of her room, and removed a loose floorboard, only to retrieve a toolkit that she carried back to C.C. with obvious menace.

"You know that is pointless, don't you?" C.C. stated, disinterested. Sayoko ignored her, setting the toolbox down next to her and opening it up. "Nunnally is trying to sleep, after all."

"My room is soundproof," Sayoko explained. C.C. arched an eyebrow.

"Phooey," C.C. shrugged. "You know I was going to tell you everything if you just asked. Besides, what would Lelouch say if he knew that you were planning to torture one of his friends…" at that, Sayoko stopped, considering her confident words.

"It's for his protection," Sayoko growled. C.C. nodded.

"But would he agree with that notion?" C.C. pointed out. Sayoko smiled menacingly.

"Ah, but you forget the cruelty of the Brittannian royal family. As pleasant as Lelouch is to his sister, I know that cruelty exists inside him…" Sayoko stated. C.C. shrugged.

"Somewhere, yes, I agree. I felt that much from him when we connected earlier today," at those words, Sayoko winced, appearing very pained all of a sudden. C.C. arched an eyebrow. "Oh, did something I say bother you?"

Sayoko's face was growing red. "You and L-Lelouch-sama had…s-sex?" Sayoko stuttered, appearing quite embarrassed at this possible revelation.

"No."

"What?" Sayoko blinked.

"No – what we did was vastly more important and intimate. You could say that we truly became one in soul and mind…" C.C. explained.

"I don't understand. More intimate then sex?" Sayoko wondered. C.C. sighed.

"Yes, there are things like that out there. However, you probably aren't capable of being that intimate with anyone…" at C.C.'s words, an expression of anger and bitterness crossed Sayoko's face as she reached into the toolbox and retrieved a pair of pliers.

"Brittannian superiority at a time like this," Sayoko gestured with the pliers.

"If you haven't noticed, I'm not Brittannian, I'm Celtic…" C.C. stated. Sayoko frowned.

"Does it really matter?" Sayoko argued.

"Well, technically it does, since you are arguing that I'm being racist because I'm Brittannian, which I'm not. Truthfully, I could say the same about you, Japanese." The fact that the emerald haired witch referred to Sayoko as Japanese rather than Eleven was not lost to Sayoko. The maid studied the bored expression on the witch's face, before sighing and kneeling down next to her.

"Why did it have to be a rude, heartless girl like you?" Sayoko groaned. C.C. chuckled.

"Oh, finally believe me?" C.C. chuckled. Sayoko glared.

"No. But I'm at a loss on how to force you to tell the truth. Your confidence is unsettling." Sayoko explained.

"So you haven't noticed that goodness exists in his heart, have you?" C.C. asked. Sayoko shook her head.

"No, it is quite obvious, especially when he's around his sister. It's just shadowed by the pain and hatred left behind by his family's actions…" the maid stated. C.C. nodded.

"It still exists, though," C.C. pointed out.

"Yes, and though I don't know how you know him, I strangely feel as if he knows you enough that he would be against your harm…" Sayoko declared.

"So it is…" C.C. agreed.

"I'll be watching you, though, C.C.-san. If you so much as put one foot out of line," saying this, Sayoko leaned forward so that she could glare into C.C.'s eyes. They held each other's stare for several moments before Sayoko pulled away. "Don't give me a reason." She warned.

Minutes later, C.C. was dumped out into the hallway, where she went looking for Lelouch's room again. When she found it, she pilfered one of his credit cards and ordered some late dinner. She met the delivery boy outside the Lamperouge home so that he wouldn't wake Nunnally. When she returned to Lelouch's room she enjoyed her pizza in the relative quiet.

Late into the night she heard the back door open, and went to investigate. She found the weary form of her long lost ward setting about turning on the security system for the house, looking very tired and emotionally drained. She knew that he didn't expect her appearance as he turned and nearly collided with her waiting form.

"C.C.?" Lelouch questioned. She could see that his violet eyes were shining in the moonlight, bright enough to appear unnatural.

"Yes."

"How did you find this place?" he asked, his head sweeping the room before reaching out to lightly urge her towards the staircase. C.C. let him lead her up the stairs, her head turned to silently study the boy.

"It seemed a fair deduction to consider that the Ashford family would give asylum to the estranged vi Brittannia family. Don't you think?" she prompted. Lelouch paused halfway up the stairs, and when C.C. turned around to look at him she could see that he was staring down at the floor with a thoughtful expression worn on his features.

"I see," he stated, his eyes flicking up to catch her golden gaze. "Where did you pick up that skill set?" he asked. A smile came to C.C.'s lips that only hinted at the pride inside her heart, something that remained despite her calm exterior.

"I _did_ teach the world's greatest detective, after all," C.C. alluded. She gave a shrug, as if to hint that that was all she was willing to say to the boy. "You pick these things up after a century or two of study…"

"I see," Lelouch reiterated.

There came the sound of a thump and shuffling from the end of the hall, which C.C. knew was the maid, Sayoko's room. No doubt the woman was listening into their conversation at that very moment.

Lelouch opened his mouth to continue their conversation, but C.C. stopped him by stepping down to the step directly above him, reached for one of his hands with her smaller one, and held a finger to his lips from her other hand.

"Not here," she said softly, leaning towards his ear. "The walls have ears." When she pulled back she could see that his eyes had widened considerably.

Suddenly, Lelouch's eyes began to glow in a soft, blue shine. Lelouch swept his eyes across the stairs several times. C.C. was under the impression that he could somehow see much more than what she was capable of. After a few seconds of studying the stairway, Lelouch scowled and cursed.

"Damn."

"Do you see?" C.C. questioned. Lelouch nodded, distracted.

"Where did these all come from?" he whispered to her. C.C. smiled.

"Believe it or not, your maid, Sayoko Shinozaki; she is apparently _very_ serious about yours and Nunnally's safety," the witch explained. She watched Lelouch idly press his fingers into the wall of the stairwell, sliding across the smooth surface.

"I see," he said, apparently for lack of anything better to say.

C.C. led him to his room, dutifully ignoring how Sayoko's door was opened a tiny crack and an optical wire was peeking out from the floor. She knew that Lelouch could see it just fine, and if he was okay with it then she wouldn't say anything…yet. However, if Sayoko thought that she would be allowed to invade her privacy in the coming days, well, they would be having words.

C.C. liked her secrets.

Inside his room, Lelouch slowly removed his school jacket, and fished out his wallet and keys. When he finally let his phone go, C.C. reached down to the table and plucked his phone off the surface, then climbed swiftly into his bed.

"Sure, make yourself right at home," Lelouch growled sarcastically. C.C. arched a green eyebrow at him from underneath her emerald tresses.

"Is something wrong?" she asked. Lelouch sighed.

C.C. left Lelouch to his grumbling while she briefly searched through the internet from his phone. Having to pilfer through Brittannian propaganda was exhausting for a woman that just came out of a life as a lab rat. However, she found the information that she was looking for.

"_- the European Union has gathered today to have preliminary discussions about the inclusion of Elevens into the military. The movement has sprung up much controversy; a landslide of E.U. nobles show disagreement with the movement, while notable corporations such as 'Wayne Enterprises' has shown open support for the movement. For more information on notable E.U. nobles against the movement, and information on corporations actively supporting the movement, please visit our website at –"_

Clunk!

C.C. looked up, catching Lelouch's gaze. The young superhuman were standing stiffly, a surprised expression on his face. C.C. watched the emotions and the memories flicker across his face, though she couldn't really make sense of any of it. She was almost tempted on using her code to read his mind, but disregarded it. Lelouch's eyes flickered from hers, to the floor, widening as he caught sight of something. He bent down to pick whatever it was that he had seen drop, and curious, C.C. crawled across the bed to peer over the edge.

The familiar crystal that Lelouch clutched in his hand now as he rose was slightly startling, in that she had always held a measure of distrust for the alien tech. Lelouch examined it for a long time, his violet eyes shining with a blue glow. She had that impression again that he was looking at it in a way that she couldn't possibly begin to understand.

"What are you doing?" she finally asked, when her curiosity overcame her hesitance to broach this subject. Lelouch's eyes moved from the crystal to her instinctively, before the boy looked away with a massive blush across his cheeks.

He mumbled something, too low for the woman to hear. She leaned towards him.

"Hm? What is it?" C.C. asked, slowly rising from her crouched stance so that she was sitting on her knees and nearly eye level with the tall boy's chest. Lelouch was looking at everything but her, almost as if he was too embarrassed to look her in the eye. It was rather cute, though C.C. wouldn't likely be telling him that, anytime soon.

"_X-ray_," he hissed, turning away from her. C.C. arched an eyebrow.

"X-ray? Hm? What is that supposed to mean?" she prompted. Lelouch sighed.

"I…apparently have x-ray vision…and I was looking at the crystal just now…" saying this, the teenager sat the crystal onto his bedside table next to his wallet, keys, and the pizza box that she had left behind.

C.C. considered his words.

"Oh."

"Oh?" Lelouch glanced back. C.C. flipped herself onto her back and leaned halfway off the bed, returning to her previous activities on the phone.

"If you want to look at me naked, then I don't mind, Lelouch," C.C. refused to acknowledge the feminine gasp that both she and her companion heard that came from just outside Lelouch's bedroom. Lelouch glanced to the door with annoyance on his face.

"Whatever," Lelouch growled, reaching up to his collar. Of course, super strength and flimsy clothing never could agree when anger is in the mix, which was proven when a loud ripping noise split the quiet of the room. Lelouch sighed heavily and held the two pieces of his shirt.

C.C. glanced to him.

"Easy there, superman," C.C. drawled, not hiding the way that her eyes trailed greedily across the exposed skin of his lean but muscled chest. It was very nice, after all. "If you really want to know about the crystal then you could just ask…" she pointed out. Lelouch eyed her with annoyance.

"Would you answer me, truthfully?" he asked. She shrugged.

"They're your secrets, even if you don't know them yourself."

"I see." He said.

"This one is free," C.C. stated, patting the bed beside her, "Lay with me for tonight and I promise that I'll tell you." Lelouch seemed to consider the invitation for a few moments, before nodding and kicking his shoes off. Then he climbed into the bed beside the immortal, being careful to avoid any skin contact.

Once they were both settled, C.C. could feel Lelouch's eyes on her, obviously waiting for her to continue with her promise.

"So?" he asked. C.C. sighed and shut off the boy's phone, trying to ignore her concern for the two boys that she had left behind when fleeing from Code R. She set it onto the bedside table, and turned to Lelouch with measured composure.

"I'll be frank, then," she began. Seeing his eagerness, she continued. "You are an alien."

He stared at her blankly for a few seconds, before cracking a smile of amusement. "Is that so?"

She nodded.

"I'm serious. You wanted the truth, and that's the truth. That crystal belonged to a ship that traveled to this world hundreds of years ago with two others…" Lelouch seemed to consider her, and C.C. resisted the feminine impulse to punish perverts when his eyes began glowing blue again with his x-ray vision. After checking her, Lelouch sat back in the bed, obviously stunned.

"You're serious." It wasn't a question.

"Yes, I am." C.C. agreed.

Lelouch was obviously trying to grapple for something to argue with, and seemed to find something.

"There's no way Charles would have claimed me as his son if I was an alien that he found in a ship," he pointed out. C.C. considered his words, before nodding.

"True, but you are a bit different than the other two aliens that Charles and your uncle discovered on this planet years ago," she explained. "For reasons unknown, you were created when a pregnant Marianne vi Brittannia stumbled upon your ship eighteen years ago. Essentially, you are a product of genetic engineering, created from Charles's, Marianne's and the DNA of two aliens, probably a female and a male. That's all we know." She told him.

She could see that the information was overwhelming him. C.C. reached out to rub her fingers across his shoulder, something that startled him enough out of his spiraling thoughts.

"What? Then why was I a human until…" his thoughts darkened. "Charles…he must be like you? He's got some kind of weird mind powers or something…" C.C. shrugged.

"Or something," she agreed, but didn't offer anything more. Lelouch glared at her.

"Were you the one who did it? Took my powers away? Or was it Charles or my uncle?" he asked.

"It was Charles, yes." She claimed. Lelouch closed his eyes and leaned heavily against his headboard.

"I don't know what to feel right now," Lelouch stated. C.C. sighed.

"Go to sleep." She ordered, before turning to lie on the bed on her side and pulling the covers up over her body. She could feel Lelouch's eyes on her for next half hour, before her mind receded as she slipped into unconsciousness.

XXX

"You're mental," Tamaki shouted, gesturing wildly as if to emphasize his point.

"Screw you, Tamaki, I know what I saw!" Kallen Kozuki spat while thrashing in Ohgi's hold. The only thing that prevented her from decking the former second in command turned leader of their resistance group and jumping at Tamaki was the man's history with her brother.

"You got to admit, Kallen-chan, that the idea that a man could go toe to toe with a Knightmare Frame, especially one like that white one, well, that's just ludicrous!" Naomi Inoue explained.

There were murmurs of agreement.

"Could you have hit your head at some point, Kallen-chan?" Minami asked. Kallen growled, struggling listlessly against Ohgi's hold.

"No, I know what I saw, dammit!" she exclaimed.

"S'pose you are right, Kallen…then what? Does it really matter who or what this Zero guy is?" Ohgi questioned, getting nods of understanding from the rest of the group. "The important thing is that we even escaped alive with relatively little causalities. Who this guy is, what he is, or what his goals are don't matter to us since we're done with Shinjuku…"

"Until he comes calling…" Kallen growled.

"What are you talking about, Kallen!" Tamaki exclaimed.

"Think about it," Kallen smirked, glad to know that she had thought of something that no one else in her little group had. "Dude as powerful as that could probably utterly destroy all of the Brittannian forces in Japan right now, and he just so happened to feel generous enough to stop and command us into a proper resistance against that asshole Clovis and his little army? Fuck that noise! I bet he has something else in mind!" Kallen argued.

Unease settled over the group. Inoue stepped up.

"He could have just wanted a strategic challenge?" the other woman of the group wondered aloud. "Maybe he gets off playing real world strategy games with people's lives…?" Minami asked to the group at large.

"I doubt that," Kallen said, seeing that she was getting the others to see, finally, "When you have that kind of power, why even bother trying to strengthen your brain…unless he had some other kind of plan for this world and Japan then just oppressing the population with his colossal power…" she put forth her idea.

"He could just be very cautious," Sugiyama stated, stepping into the conversation. "As powerful as he is, I doubt that he's invulnerable…he might feel it is better to manipulate all the players from the shadows and rule from the sidelines…" he offered. Kallen snorted.

"From a guy like that, I doubt it. No, I bet he wants to be front and center when he takes over, and why would he need our help for something like that…unless he had something planned for Japan more than just genocide and oppression…" she could see that everyone was beginning to see her point.

"You are forgetting that humans don't have that kind of power! So there's no way that he could take over, anyways!" Tamaki argued. Kallen smirked.

"And when he shows up again and shows you all his power? I can tell you I'm going to enjoy rubbing it into your faces," Kallen growled. "I was there, and I saw a man fly with his own power…and I _believed_…"

XXX

Lelouch didn't get much sleep that night, instead thinking on C.C.'s explains and wondering, _what now_?

C.C.'s presence in his bedroom had a strangely calming effect on his warring emotions and thoughts. After he was sure that Sayoko had left them to their own devices, Lelouch allowed the witch's gentle snores to lull him into a zen like state. Before he knew it, the sun was peeking over the horizon and into his room through his window.

With the dawning rays, a new awareness struck him suddenly. Hope, as cruel and unrepentant as it had always been blossomed in his heart since his brother, Clovis was struck down in front of him. Before that, he had felt it briefly after reclaiming his powers, but the death of Clovis had overwhelmed him. He had been reacting on instinct for the rest of the night.

As Lelouch stood from the bed and made his way to the window, he dreaded learning of the destruction of Shinjuku ghetto. He hadn't exactly been coherent after Clovis's death, and though he had regained the majority of his sanity a few minutes afterwards, when he had come to cognizant thought he realized that he was standing in the smoldering and twisted remains of Clovis's HQ.

Horrified with himself and very weary from the day's events, Lelouch had departed back to his home at the Ashford academy.

Lelouch stood in the window, soaking in the sunlight, almost welcoming it back into him with a relish. He didn't understand the pleasure that such a simple action brought him but he accepted it and enjoyed it no less.

After several minutes of enjoying the warmth, Lelouch turned to his closet and began retrieving the clothing that he would be wearing today. Afterwards, Lelouch headed to his personal bathroom, unaware that he had grabbed the alien crystal off of his bedside table as he passed.

Once he stood inside the bathroom, Lelouch headed for the shower, while at the same time dropping the crystal into the sink. He started the shower, turning it to as hot as he wished, before stepping into the stream.

Serenity had spread over the teenager, his conscious thoughts retreating to the fore corners of his mind as he lathered his body and rinsed the grime from the previous day off his hard frame. He let his thoughts drift, letting the repetition of the moment ease his tension from his body.

In the sink, the crystal began pulsing, flickering lights dancing across its surface.

_Lelouch found that he was floating over Ashford Academy, looking into the distant sunset. A constant hum drifted to him from over the breeze. A voice, devoid of emotion or sex came to him suddenly, urging, "Come."_

_Lelouch went into action, speeding over the rooftops of the city and heading into the country. After the steel and concrete disappeared into dirt, trees and shrub, Lelouch began urging himself faster, propelled by the urgency of the voice. Soon, he passed over mountaintops and then into distant plains, until, finally, he came upon the shores of Japan and headed out to sea._

_With the waters thrashing about from the force of his flight, Lelouch went further and further out to sea, passing over islands and continents in his pursuit of the voice, until, finally, he stopped so suddenly that an explosion of air pressure blew every cloud away from his body._

"_Come", the voice boomed now, seemingly causing the boy's perception of reality to shudder. Lelouch peered down into the ocean's waters below him, before, with a minor application of his power, he went speeding into the dark depths below._

_Faster than a bullet, Lelouch pushed himself deeper into the primordial kingdom. Bubbles and foam rose from his spiraling body, trailing all the way to the surface as he sunk, down and down, into the cold, dark depths._

_As the light faded before his eyes, a bright light pierced the darkness. Compelled, Lelouch raced towards the light, hands gripping at it. What he found as he came upon the light caused his eyes to widen._

_A ship waited for him in the icy grave, pulsating like a heartbeat and light flickering across its metal surface. Tempted, Lelouch reached out to the ship and felt along its body. As his skin made contact with its surface, however, the light vanished, and the ship stilled._

_As if instinct prompted him, Lelouch reached towards the ship, realizing that the hand that he reached with held the alien crystal that had started all this. Before he could react, his hand found an opening on the body of the ship, placing the crystal inside, and then grasping it as he turned the crystal. Like a key, it caused the ship to awaken. A shrill humming unsettled the life on the ocean floor. An extrasensory perception filled Lelouch as he felt the contours of reality open in the space behind him._

_A mighty force pulled him into the tear in reality, along with the ship, sending him hurtling into darkness with a scream of terror to accompany him…_

Lelouch's eyes opened blearily. Pressed against the shower wall, Lelouch allowed himself to soak up the information given to him by means that he did not understand. However, he understood the contents of the message, even if he was unsettled by them at the same time.

It was a simple message, but wrapped in the compulsion to obey instinctively.

_Come._

Lelouch pushed himself off the wall, at the same time shutting off the spray of water as he stepped to the shower door. He climbed out of the shower and retrieved his towel, where he began to dry himself from hair to toe. When he finished, he collected his clothing and dressed himself up to his pants. Then he regarded the stubble on his chin with his hand, before getting out his shaving kit.

He had already washed and slathered the cream onto his face when he came to a new issue about his super powered lifestyle. The moment he pressed the razor against his cheek it bent and broke off from the pressure. Lelouch blinked blankly at the shattered razor in his skin before growling in frustration.

Invulnerability and super strength seemed to have their own complications that hadn't been immediately apparent when he had first regained them. Since the day he had started to grow facial hair, Lelouch had made sure to always keep himself clean shaven. A stubborn part of himself (that he must have inherited from his time in the Royal Court) refused to admit that he might be forced to grow a beard. Washing his face from the shaving cream, Leouch glared at the dark hairs on his chin.

It was a bit petty, yes, but he'd dealt with a lot of emotional stress the day before, and the lack of sleep had merely allowed him to dwell on those stresses until his frustrations built up.

Heat pooled in his eyes. Lelouch could only groan in annoyance as the flames poured from his eyes and hit the mirror.

Of course, he wasn't expecting the heat to bounce back at him and nail him in the chin. He flinched instinctively at the heat, but it seemed to be nowhere near as hot as it had been the previous night. Instead of scorching skin, it merely left a trail of smooth skin in its wake, drawing a jagged line through the facial hair from his chin to his neck.

Lelouch slapped a hand over his eyes and hissed in frustration. After he managed to regain control of his warring emotions, Lelouch opened his eyes back up and peered at his reflection.

Tracing the path of smooth skin with his fingers, Lelouch felt a smile cross his lips. Focusing once more, Lelouch brought out the heat again and started to trace the contours of his face with the heat. It was delicate work to judge and calculate the angle that would best allow him to clear his face from stubble, and he had a few close claws, which he had to put out hastily by smothering them with his hands, but in the end he was completely free of facial hair.

A little haggard by the experience, Lelouch wiped the ashes of hair off his body with towel and sprayed his body down with some cologne to get rid of the smell of burnt hair. Done with his chore, Lelouch tossed on his shirt and stepped out of the bathroom.

C.C. was awake on the bed, idly using his phone to search the web and lazily kicking her feet in the air. Lelouch ignored her for a moment, instead choosing to head to his closet to choose his shoes and jacket for the day. He was a little annoyed that he had gone and lost his favorite pair of shoes in Shinjuku Ghetto, but it really couldn't be helped.

"I see you changed in the bathroom," C.C. stated, and a glance showed that she was peeking up at him from under the phone, "Are you too embarrassed to change in front of a woman, Lelouch?" Lelouch pulled his jacket on finally and stepped out of the closet to sit in the chair by his bed as he pulled on his shoes.

"Not at all, witch," Lelouch stated evenly, arching an eyebrow at her, "I just didn't want to give a free show to a woman who might be a pedophile," he shot back. C.C.'s lips twitched at the challenge.

"You know, physically I'm younger than you," she retorted, "Whose the pedophile then?"

Lelouch mused on that for a moment, before nodding at that reasoning.

"Still, an impressionable young lad as I and a woman with no doubt centuries of experience at seduction, how would I know to resist you if you decided to indulge in your perversion?" he asked. C.C. chuckled.

"Cute, yes, but you are forgetting one important fact," C.C. sat the phone down and sat up, cocking an eyebrow in challenge. "You are basing your argument on the idea that I would try and seduce you…" she pointed out.

"True," Lelouch agreed. "I can't say I know even a little of what goes on in there," he reached across the bed to tap her forehead with his index finger, "However, even I know a little bit on the basis of flirting. You could have very well have easily ignored me and let me leave in peace, but you decided to tease me. Why is that?" he smirked.

"Don't flatter yourself," C.C. stated blandly, shrugging, "Handsome as you may be, and as much as our history goes back, I'm not interested in jumping into the sack with you anytime soon. Now, if you are a good boy and can keep me amused for a while, then I might decide to show how to treat a real woman. Until then, try thinking with your real head and not junior, okay?" she pressed.

Lelouch cracked a smile.

"Defensive, now," Lelouch chuckled. "It must suck to be forced to take men much younger then you as lovers, right?" he asked. C.C. nodded.

"Women too…" C.C. allowed that to sink in, instead dancing away from him and into the bathroom, leaving him staring blankly at the far wall with a trail of blood leaking from his nostrils.

"Ah, wow, happy thoughts," Lelouch grunted, shaking his head. After finding a tissue and cleaning up his reaction to C.C.'s teasing, Lelouch stepped out of his room, and nearly collided with Sayoko, the maid of the Lamperouge family and apparently a deadly assassin as well.

"Oh, Lelouch-sama, I hadn't realized that you were up, yet," Sayoko looked him over concernedly. Lelouch knew that he would need to talk to the woman soon to learn everything that she had heard them discussing the night previous, but right now he was a bit in a rush to get to his school and see his friend Milly. "I do hope C.C.-san didn't keep you up all night?" she asked, starting to blush now. Lelouch wondered, what was that about?

"Ah, sorry, Sayoko-chan," Lelouch stared at her strangely for a moment, before rubbing his head with resignation, "No, C.C. didn't keep me up. I managed all that on my own. Though I did manage to get a little shut eye right before dawn," he admitted. It was a little embarrassing to admit that he had gotten so lost into his thoughts that he had stayed up most of the night, which was probably why his face suddenly grew red.

"Oh, oh dear," Sayoko breathed in great shock, before coughing and turning away in embarrassment, "I hadn't thought that she would be so cruel as to leave you to your own comfort as that." Lelouch blanched as he realized where she was going with that line of thought.

"Oh, dammit, it wasn't like that!" Lelouch groaned, smacking his hand to his face and sliding it down in frustration, "We weren't having sex, Sayoko!" he exclaimed.

"Don't let him confuse you, Sayoko dear," C.C. stepped out of the room, now wearing one of Lelouch's shirts over her mostly nude body and a towel wrapped around her wet hair. Lelouch stared dumbly at her as she walked up to him before glancing to the maid. "Of course we had sex, many times, in fact. He simply _exhausted_ me. However, it's not my fault if the fool doesn't go to sleep when he knows he should." Before either Sayoko or Lelouch could say anything C.C. stepped up towards the boy and leaned up to plant a quick kiss on his lips. "I'm hungry," C.C. declared, before dashing off to the kitchen.

Sayoko was steadily growing redder in the face was Lelouch was staring vacantly at the wall, wondering, _What-the-hell?_

_Oh_, _that little devil!_ Lelouch swore as he turned away from Sayoko and marched towards the stairs so he could go ring the immortal's neck. He had had a feeling that she would be trouble when he saw her in the darkness last night when he had come home. Now he understood just how right he was.

XXX

"What!" Milly's shout was deafening. "What do you mean you are taking a 'vacation'?" Milly continued, nearly throttling Lelouch with his own collar as she jerked him around in his seat.

She had been surprised when her old friend and vice president of her club had asked to speak with her in private, and Milly had almost been hoping that her deepest desire would have been met today, but then Lelouch had sprung _this_ on her!

Lelouch sighed and placed his hands onto hers, instantly halting her as Milly became aware of the complete lack of personal space between them and the intimate position that they were in. Milly was aware of her cheeks heating up as Lelouch maintained her gaze with his calm look.

"Look, after yesterday I realized that I needed to rest, so I decided to take the week off and head out to the country for some much needed rest," he told her. Milly doubted that was the truth, and intended to call him out on it.

His voice lowered as he seemingly realized her conviction. "Okay, look, I didn't really want to say it cause I didn't want to worry you, but it has something to do with my life before coming here to Japan," Just like that, all her righteous anger and feminine fury was cooled like ocean water upon lava. Yes, this was very important, both for Lelouch _and_ Nunnally. Did someone find them?

Milly nodded, and pulled away from Lelouch. Once she had regained her chair, she set herself down and began patting down her hair and clothing which had been ruffled in her short confrontation with her childhood friend.

"Are you and Nunnally in danger?" Milly questioned in a no nonsense tone of voice. Though, normally, she was very easy going and fun loving, when it came to her friends' safety she was strictly business. She had never seriously contemplated whether or not she could kill somehow, but, somehow, she thought it likely that she could find the strength to do so if it meant protecting her childhood friends Lelouch and Nunnally vi Brittannia.

"Not if I have anything to say about it," Lelouch said darkly. Milly was struck by that preternatural sense that anyone with a close childhood friend had when they knew that their friend was going to do something both incredibly stupid and dangerous. The class president and dishonored noble wouldn't have been surprised to learn that Lelouch was planning murder. She knew he was very protective of his sister, Nunnally. It was actually one of the things that made him most attractive to her.

Milly sighed. "Alright, Lelouch," Milly said morosely. "You'll call me when you get back, right?" she demanded, glowering. Milly's face flushed when she noticed the fond smile that the exiled prince was giving her.

"Of course," He agreed. However, his smile soon fell as he muttered, "If I even make it back…" Seeing his seriousness, Milly arched an eyebrow as she looked to her friend forlornly.

"It's that bad, huh?" Milly asked simply. Lelouch shrugged.

"I couldn't really say," Lelouch sighed, and Milly could just sense the monumental weight placed onto his shoulders for his self-imposed mission. "There's probably never been anything quite this important in the whole history of the human race…"

"Be that as it may," Milly smiled fondly, remembering her past with the boy she shared the room with currently, "I'm sure you'll be able to do what you have set out to do and make it back alive. I don't think that there's anything that you can't do, mister superman." Milly shook her head, fondly remembering her friend's uncompromising attitude, his sheer determination and conviction, and his stubbornness.

"Sometimes," Lelouch began, mouth twitching with distaste and dispassion, "I don't know what to put my faith in; my wallet, my body, or my memories? They all seem rather fickle to me…" Milly got the feeling that he was talking about more than just his beliefs on this subject. Milly took in her friend's melancholy tone and stood up to step towards him to comfort him, wrapping her arms around his shoulders in a tender embrace.

"Then don't put your faith in those things, put your faith in here," She ordered, placing her hand onto his chest, directly where his heart was. "On this: on your soul, on your very being: who you are as a man and a person. Do you understand?" Lelouch was looking at her with big, soulful eyes, very soft, and very reserved. Then he reached to take her hand off his chest, and wrapped his much bigger hands around hers, making her blush fiercely at the intimate act.

"Maybe," Lelouch smiled thinly, as if afraid to admit something, "However, I'm still curious. If nothing else, I want to learn the truth if only to put my mind at ease." Suddenly, it seemed to Milly as if they weren't just talking about his insecurities anymore, but something else deeply important to the boy. The girl smiled at being trusted enough for him to confide this much in her.

They shared a quiet moment between them, before Lelouch drew away and turned to the door. He glanced back to her for a moment, and then he was gone. In that moment, Milly realized that the Lelouch that had just left might not be the same one that returns.

Milly worried.

XXX

"What do you mean you are going on vacation, Lelouch!" Nunnally exclaimed, looking up at her older brother with trembling, wide and innocent eyes. It was an expression that she knew Lelouch could not resist, and Lelouch could only groan in dismay as she set her crosshairs on his form.

"Something came up," Lelouch said with a sigh, rubbing his forehead tiredly. Kneeling down, he grabbed his sister's softer hands with one of his large hands, and with the other he began to softly sooth her face. "You know that I wouldn't just leave you if it weren't for something extremely important…" Lelouch watched his sister's face as she put her equally as brilliant mind to work, her cheeks and lips twitching at her busy thoughts.

"Is it…does it have to do with our family?" Nunnally asked a note of fear in her voice. Lelouch knew that despite her love for her sisters and brothers that Nunnally did not wish to return to the life of a princess of Brittannia. The girl was very aware of the way most Brittannian's looked at her, a blind and crippled girl forced to rely on the love and mercies of her older brother, and though she did not feel hate or shame for her weakness and everyone's reactions to her, she also did not wish to become a pawn in her father's games…

There was also the little known fact that Lelouch refused to let his sister be fed to the lion's den that was the royal court. She knew how much she meant to Lelouch, and refused to do anything that would cause her brother pain…even if that meant that they would remain exiled from the family if only so she wouldn't be caught up in Charles's game.

"Yes, and no," Lelouch stated, resisting the urge to hiss in disgust and anger as he told the younger girl a half truth. The space ship from his dream was both connected to the Brittannian royal family as well as separate, so it wasn't exactly a lie. Lelouch didn't know why he felt it necessary to seek the ship out, but he felt it was gravely important to their continued safety and for his lofty goals.

"Lelouch?" Nunnaly reached out and took his face into his hands, "seeing" his expression with her palms as her hands moved across the angular corners of his face. Lelouch allowed her, knowing that to resist would be more condemning then her seeing any lie on his face. At least this way she would not ask questions.

"You're so angry – and scared," Nunnally whispered. Lelouch reached up and held her hands to his face.

"Nunnally, I have to go. This…could mean everything for me…and for us," he told her. Nunnally traced the edges of his lips with her fingers, before moving up to study the shape of his eyebrows and eyes. Her soft, waif like features hardened slightly, showing a resolve that would strike others completely off center. She was his sister, after all.

"Yes, of course, my brother. Just make sure that you come back to me and us…" Nunnally instructed. Lelouch smiled fondly.

"Yes, I understand."

"A pinky promise?" Nunnally asked hopefully, removing her hands from his face only to hold her right hand up with her fingers clenched into a fist except for her pinkie.

"Sure," Lelouch agreed.

They did the old superstition, Lelouch wishing that he needn't have to keep the truth from her. When that was settled, Sayoko took the girl up to her room while Lelouch headed to his own.

XXX

The door click shut behind him as Lelouch stepped into the room. From the bed, C.C. peeked over the phone that she was looking over, a slice of pizza dangling from her mouth.

"You look constipated," C.C. drawled, slurping up the rest of her pizza. Lelouch seemed to regard the three open boxes of cheesy, saucy goodness on his bedside table with disgust.

"You know, I forgot to ask this yesterday, but where did you get the money for pizza?" Though he asked this question, C.C. knew that he had already deduced the answer for himself as he was eyeing the stack of credit cards on the table with a level gaze.

"I decided to treat myself to something to eat, at your expense, of course…" she admitted without shame. Lelouch nodded.

"Of course," he agreed sarcastically.

"Oh, don't bother with the pity party act," C.C. shook her head, "I wouldn't have taken anything from you if I wasn't sure that you could afford it. From what Sayoko says, you have pretty deep pockets for an exiled prince."

"Hard earned from ripping off stuck up nobles, if you please," Lelouch explained. C.C. grinned like the Cheshire cat.

"Naturally," she agreed.

"You could be a little thankful for my leniency, though," Lelouch pointed out. To answer that remark, C.C. reached for another slice and held it up as if to toast to the boy.

"Oh, I am," C.C. smiled, her cheeks making little dimples that made her innocent face appear even more so, though it was offset by the wicked glint in her eyes. "However, since a man like you would obviously have no interest in receiving thanks to validate your morals, I think that I'll pass from speaking out on my feelings."

"Which there are none," Lelouch grumbled. C.C. chuckled, stuffing the cheesy slice into her mouth.

"Hmmm…"

Lelouch sighed, and moved to his closet to change into a better set of clothing. C.C. kept her eyes on his body as he stripped the upper half of his clothing and the bottom half except for his boxers, exchanging the set of clothing for a plain black wetsuit.

"Going swimming?" C.C. asked, and when he turned he saw that she had flipped onto her back with her head hanging off the bed and was watching him while also stuffing her face with her pizza.

"Hmmm…" he wordlessly agreed, nodding his head. Apparently distracted, Lelouch reached for a belt of pouches which he then buckled to his waistline.

"Gotta say, black is definitely your color," C.C. commented, tilting her head and licking her fingers. "I don't know why, but I feel like you need some purple, though…"

"I'll keep that in mind when I'm shopping for a new wardrobe," Lelouch drawled, apparently resisting the urge to retort and instead moving to his bedside table and retrieving the alien crystal.

"Men, always so touchy at the topic of their choices in clothing," C.C. mocked, flipping back onto her stomach and then climbing to her knees. "However, you are forgetting one simple fact."

"And that is?" Lelouch questioned, appearing doubtful.

"I'm older than 99.5% of the planet's population, brat," C.C. sliced her hand through the air and smacked her other hand's open palm with a quick chop to emphasize her point, "Is it so difficult to believe that I might have had some training in fashion at some point?"

"And which century was that?" Lelouch returned. C.C. smoothed out all the emotion on her face.

"18th, I believe," C.C. admitted.

"Then why, pray tell, should I take your advice," he chuckled. C.C. raised her hand, a long, thin finger extended in warning.

"You do not know the power of the conservative," C.C. stated, rising to her feet and meeting Lelouch halfway, where she patted his shoulders with purpose. "A bit of posh and the right demeanor can open any door…"

"Or just a lot of money," Lelouch argued. C.C. nodded her head in acceptance of his point.

"Do not forget about beauty, either," C.C. remarked. Lelouch snorted in amusement.

"As if I could," almost appearing as if he was unaware of it, Lelouch reached out to brush a lock of green hair aside the witch's cheek.

"Nunnally will no doubt be a nervous wreck with you gone," C.C. stepped back purposely, well aware that their flirting was dangerous; for the both of them…

"How did you hear that?" Lelouch asked.

C.C. gave him a deadpanned expression.

"Your sister has a set of lungs on her…" C.C. pointed out. Lelouch reached up to helplessly pinch the bridge of his nose.

"I see…" Lelouch trailed off, before glancing to her. "You'll be fine on your own for a while…keep out of Brittannia hands?" C.C. waved his concerns off with a bit of annoyance.

"Yes, yes. I managed it just fine for years. It was bad luck that they found me last time – and I won't give them the chance to do so this time…" she stated.

"Are you sure about that?" Lelouch's face hardened with thoughts that C.C. was not privy to. Oh, she had tried to read his thoughts several times since meeting him in the dark last night, however, his mind had strangely been closed to her. Now she had to rely on her social skills and her knowledge of psychology to get a peek at that evil little brain of his. "You know, I am trusting you with an awful lot when you won't even give me the decency of telling me your name."

"Names are important," C.C. argued, narrowing her eyes in frustration at the age old question. "Why should I give you my name when you probably can't even say it with the right mindset?"

"Such as…"

"Say it with feeling…"

"…."

"…."

"I see…" Lelouch was suddenly giving her a much softer expression, and though it wasn't pity, it still set alarm bells off. It was an emotion that she tended to avoid like the plague, because it could lead too so many complications in her life.

Sympathy…

"I think I'm beginning to understand you a little now," Lelouch said, watching her carefully. "Maybe I'm miss reading things, maybe I'm completely wrong, but I want to understand. Something about you…it reminds me of myself…" Though C.C. resisted, her body gave a slight jerk as she flinched, her instinctual reaction to his words.

"You have no idea the value of those words, child," C.C. said, her face and voice devoid of emotion, "You simply _don't_ want to understand me…because understanding me would be the same as becoming me…and nobody deserves that fate." She turned away so that she wouldn't have to make eye contact and give him an opportunity to weaken her emotional walls. Even as devoid of feeling as she tried to be, some wounds were too great to simply brush under the rug when they were ripped out of the cage that she had locked them inside to begin with.

"Think carefully about your own words, witch," Lelouch shot back, and C.C. turned suddenly furious eyes his way. Her next words were stopped as Lelouch smoothly explained, "If nobody deserves your fate, than certainly you don't, either."

"And yet, it is mine alone to bear…" C.C. stated without confliction. Lelouch nodded.

"However," he held up a finger in argument, "You are forgetting one vital piece of information, C.C… 'Free Will'." Despite herself, despite the conversation and the situation, C.C. snorted in amusement.

"And therein lies the proof of your youth," C.C. motioned to him. "'Free Will', 'Fate', you miss construe my meaning. I am not speaking of a metaphysical future point in time, a so called destiny, nor do I speak of the choices that I have made. I am merely speaking of what is."

"Heh," Lelouch smirked, looking suddenly pleased. "That's the problem with you, you see? You're forgetting the most important lesson of all…"

"'Things Change'," said Lelouch.

"…."

"…."

"…."

"…."

"Alright, you win this one, Lelouch vi Brittannia," C.C. allowed, sighing in defeat. "I suggest you savor this moment while you can, as there will be very few times like this where you will be able to win an argument with the Immortal Witch known as C.C…."

"Gladly," Lelouch smirked. C.C. cocked an eyebrow.

"Now, off with you, then," C.C. shooed, waving her hand at him in a brushing motion. "Go, save the world or something!"

"Yes, ma'am," Lelouch agreed, turning to his window. Before he could leave, C.C. reached her hand out to halt his escape.

"One more thing," C.C. claimed, maintaining his gaze. "The next time you decide to go off on a little 'vacation', I'm coming with. We are partners after all…" C.C. and Lelouch exchanged stares for a few seconds before Lelouch nodded.

"I suppose it might be handy to have an immortal seductress on my side," Lelouch offered.

"Charming…"

XXX

The trip from Japan to the Pacific Ocean was a speedy and surprisingly peaceful affair. As it was the dark hours of midnight as he edged towards the perimeter of Area Elven, he did not encounter many obstacles in his path. The only issue that he had to work around was avoiding an drone jet that had followed him out into the sea, which he had to loop around and double back before it could react, before losing it by diving deep into the waters as it circled back to find him.

Unsure if he was ready physically and mentally with a confrontation with the Brittannian military, Lelouch decided not to try his luck, instead opting to travel at higher altitudes and at faster speeds.

All the while, the distant urging of his space ship continued to whisper across his thoughts. The emotionless, sexless voice expressed the command, "Come," over and over again as he continued his flight path.

Finally, Lelouch came to a jeering stop, so sudden that the sky quaked and the clouds burst around him in a spray of dampness and moonlit rainbows. Down below, deep at the bottom of the ocean, Lelouch sensed the presence of his spacecraft. The alien consciousness that commanded him was ever stronger now, recalling the images of the dream to him again.

On pure adrenaline and instinct, Lelouch threw himself into the dark waters, plunging himself into the ocean with the sole purpose of finding the lost artefact of an alien civilization. At first, he stumbled to try and reach the ship before his breath ran out, but soon learned that he neither needed to hold his breath as he apparently didn't need to breathe at all, as well as the fact that he could use his powers of flight to send him hurtling into the water like a speeding torpedo.

Down, down, down – to the point that even his alien eyes could see no light. Strangely, though, Lelouch felt that he did not need to see. The ship was guiding him, seeing for him, and giving him the means to avoid the local wildlife and obstacles, while also leading him steadily towards it.

Finally, at last, he saw a pulsing light in the distance. It was faint to his superhuman eyes, which meant that it was even deeper still into the ocean, but he pushed onwards, focusing single mindedly on its pursuit.

When at last he settled onto the ocean floor, in the middle of a trench, Lelouch came upon his ship for the first time since leaving the womb. It was definitely a spaceship, aerodynamic and lifeless gray, but of an alien origin.

With the ship's guidance and his memories of the dream compelling him, Lelouch removed the crystal of his alien origins from a pouch on his belt, and jammed it into the slot on the side of his ship that he had seen in his dream. He then heard a whirring sound, as the ship began to pulsate. Then he felt the water pressure shift around him. And when he turned, he found the portal from his dream waiting, shining light into the dark depths.

With a whooshing noise, and an explosion of light and color, Lelouch and the ship were pulled into the wormhole.

XXX

"Ooof!" Lelouch groaned as his body dug a wide trench into the snow.

He lay in the cold ground for several moments, reorienting himself, before finally finding the strength to remove himself from the ice.

As he stood from the trench that his body had made, he found that he was standing on icy, moonlit plains – a wintry desert as far as the eye could see. Glaciers and mountains of snow stretched off into the distance, and a short pace away his space ship had settled down into the snow.

Lelouch cautiously approached, wary of what it would next do. Though it appeared that he was still on earth, he deduced that the ship could have just as easily taken him to a frozen planet if it had been inclined.

Reuniting with the ship once more, Lelouch saw that it was steaming slightly in the snow. He reached out and ran his hand across the warm metal skin of the ship, and the trailed a line down to the crystal key. The moment he touched it, it shined a red color, and then the top opened up and exposed the inner hull. At the same time, he felt the crystal fall into his open palm.

Peering into the hull, Lelouch saw that indeed, save for the mysterious genetic gun that had started him down his path, the inside of the ship was mostly empty…empty, except for a small control panel that had only a slot for the same crystal in the boy's hand as a means of control.

Seeing no other means, Lelouch pushed the crystal into the control panel.

Suddenly, the ship began moving, while at the same time the ice shelf began shaking as power built up inside the ship. The legs at the bottom of the ship extended, pushing the ship into the sky, before inverting and turning the ship upside down. Once the back of the ship was exposed to the sky, the hull closed and a panel at the bottom of the ship opened, allowing a long, thin nozzle to extend towards the sky. Then it opened fire.

Lelouch jumped back as the ship kicked. A stream of translucent, shining liquid burst out of the nozzle at the inverted bottom of the ship and arched high into the sky before gravity took over and pulled it back down to the ground. As the first drops of the liquid touched the snow, the rest suddenly solidified into a white, crystal spire.

The ship lurched again, and another stream of crystal growing liquid was fired. And then another, and another, and another, and another.

Soon, thousands of giant crystals had exploded from the crystal, forming around the ship and encasing it. Lelouch was forced to retreat several hundred meters from the ship least he be attacked by the spires, and watched as a huge bed of crystals began to form.

Once he saw that no more crystals were shooting into the sky, Lelouch began to relax, that is, until the crystals began to shine brightly with enormous power, and the ice shelf began to shake frantically.

And Lelouch watched as the crystals began to _distort_, to _shift_, and to _warp_, curling into themselves and fitting together like the oddest, most alien puzzle that the human mind could conceive, until they were simply not just thousands of crystals bunched together, but seemingly one single entity.

A fortress…

The moment Lelouch stepped into the fortress of crystals; he knew that everything had changed. Seemingly without any plausible explanation, the crystals had apparently fused together to form what some might call a home. And in the very heart of the fortress lay his ship, now back on its feet and with its hull opened further to expose the very center of the ship: a very futuristic computer with a bed of crystals that were every color of the rainbow sitting underneath it.

Curiously, Lelouch retrieved one of the crystals, a simple white one that, unlike the rest, was larger and had been separated from the rest of the crystals. The moment he removed the large white crystal, the fortress became noticeably dimmer, as if it had been illuminated by artificial light and someone had just cut the power. At the same time, Lelouch noticed a light shining from a few paces away, and as he turned to it, he noticed that there appeared to be a row of crystals slanting up from the floor at an odd angle. Each of the long and thick crystals was a clear whitish color, and was the only source of light in the room.

As Lelouch approached, he noticed all the slots in most of the bigger crystals, hollowed out and extended for easy reach, almost as if something was to be placed into them. As understanding of what these crystals were, a computer console, came to Lelouch's mind, Lelouch approached the crystal console, searching.

There, at the top most part of the console was a single crystal slot that was longer and thicker than all the others, and was not only glowing, but pulsating. And as he approached that particular crystal slot, the crystal in his hand began to pulsate at the same time as the crystal slot.

Understanding what next had to be done; Lelouch slowly, cautiously inserted the white crystal in his hand into the slot. From above, a red light shined down on Lelouch, moving over his body quickly, before disappearing. Then a voice spoke up from behind him.

"Greetings, Scion of the House of Zod." A low voice said from behind him. "I have been waiting for your arrival for a _very_ long time."

Lelouch turned, and came face to face with his genetic history.

XXX

Somewhere, in the cold, empty depths of space, and equally cold and emotionless mind turned its attention to the distant planet of Earth with curiosity and malice in mind.

To Be Continued…

Author's Note:

So, I decided to change a lot in the chapter, because there were quite a few things that I wanted to address in the story that I never got around to in the original copy.

Particularly, the lack of really any interaction with C.C. and Kallen…

C.C. obviously got the most love in this chapter, but I figure Kallen is going to get some equal parts loving from this happy writer in the next two or so chapters.

Also, I'm really not sure if I'll keep the original story arcs intact, since, as you can tell from the end of this chapter, I decided to cut off the whole end of the original chapter in favor of saving it for Chapter 4's rewrite.

This is both for dramatic effect and because I feel that the plot is more solid with Zod's first meeting with Lelouch being self-contained in the same chapter. A lot to do with the rewrite is adjusting the story so it is more coherent and flows more naturally, so when I get around to rewriting the chapters, most of the original material gets thrown out in favor of what I feel is the improved material.

My readers may or may not agree with me on that belief, but I feel it is an improvement. Trust me, though it didn't seem like the original story had problems with coherency and consistency, it was obvious to me when I took a look at the patchwork that was my notes journal.

I'm trying to address a lot in these rewrites, but those are the main points.

**PAIRINGS:**

_Lelouch/Harem:_

_Wives: Nunnally/C.C./Kallen/Sayoko/Kara/Powergirl/Milly/Euphemia/Shirley/Wonder Woman_

_Concubines: Cornelia/Kaguya/Maxima/Villetta/Cecile/Rakshata/Nonette/Tianzi_

_Mistresses: Poison Ivy/Raven_

**OTHER PAIRINGS:**

_Rolo (Superman/Ultraman)/Lucy Lane/Anya Alstriem (Knight of Six)_

_Ohgi Kaname/Lois Lane_

_Suzaku Kururugi/Guinevere su Britannia (First Princess)/Carine ne Britannia (Fifth Princess)/Dorthea Ernst (Knight of Four)_

As always, leave me a review with your thoughts.

Ta.

Professor Image.

Disclaimer: I do NOT own the Code Geass franchise or Superman or DC comic. Sunrise, Bandai and Funimation own the rights to the Code Geass franchise. Warner Bros. owns the rights to Superman and DC comics. I have made no monetary gain off of this work of fiction. I wrote this story with entertainment purposes in mind only. Please do not sue.

**EDIT: THIS CHAPTER HAS BEEN REWRITTEN! PLEASE REREAD IF YOU WISH TO UNDERSTAND SOME OF THE PLOT OF THE NEW "CODE DC" UNIVERSE!**

Summary: People handle power differently. Suddenly finding himself with god-like powers, Lelouch vi Britannia learns what it means to be human. Britannia will soon come to fear the Spawn of Zod.

Enjoy:

Code DC:

Lal-Zod of Krypton

Chapter IV

House of Zod (Unfinished)

XXX

For a moment, Lelouch's inhumanly intelligent mind failed him.

"Huh?"

"I see your life amongst the human's has taught you their ever so eloquent vocabulary," the man claimed, seemingly sizing the boy up. Lelouch got the feeling that the man was seeing him with more than just the eyes that he could see. Paranoid, Lelouch did an x-ray of the man.

"What the –" Lelouch gasped.

"You know, it isn't polite to x-ray someone that you just met," the man jested, stepping towards the boy. Seeing this, Lelouch took a step back.

"What _are_ you?" Lelouch demanded. The man chuckled.

"So impatient," said the man, his eyes twinkling with humor. Holding a hand out to his stomach, he gave a short bow, "Very well. I am the holographic construct of the artificial intelligence made from copying the personality and memories of the man known as General Dru-Zod…your father…" the AI claimed.

"My…father?" Lelouch asked, warily eying the AI. Zod, or whatever he was, nodded in answer.

"Approximately," said the machine, standing to his full height and stepping up to Lelouch once more. This time, Lelouch allowed him to get close. "Genetically, he is more your father than your human one. Over these past eighteen years your human DNA has slowly been replaced with the DNA of Dru-Zod and his wife, Ursa-Zod."

"I…see," Lelouch claimed, suddenly very strained. "How did you manage that?" the science behind the possible answer was very tempting to learn.

So Zod explained.

"Using a retrovirus that had been infused with the genetic markers of Dru-Zod and his wife, the virus was able to supplement your human DNA with the unique genes of a Kryptonian, while building the third and fourth RNA strands that makes up a Kryptonian's quadruple helix," explained the AI. "This process was very dangerous and very straining for your body. You likely started showing rapid growth in your powers. Left unchecked, your cells could have broken down as your DNA became unstable from the use of your powers…however; it seems someone intervened on your behalf…"

"Charles," Lelouch growled, suddenly angry. Zod nodded.

"These human abilities are fascinating, if somewhat troubling. Their ability to control a Kryptonian's mind is a dangerous ability indeed…however, it is fortuitous for us that the Emperor of Brittannia intervened on your behalf…if he hadn't your body would have likely started shutting down within a few years' time…"

"Why is that?" Lelouch asked. It seemed that he had found a hole in the explanation. "Wasn't the point to turn a human into your species, not kill them?"

"In an ideal world, you would have come into contact with this ship long before you were in danger of dying. Through this ship's facilities, I would have been able to control your transformation into a Kryptonian, allowing you to grow up relatively unhindered by your unique origins as a Kryptonian/Human hybrid," Zod explained.

"Oh."

"Barring contact with you from an early age, Charles zi Britannia's use of his powers to wipe your memories of your own powers and to suppress them was the next best possible action. Of course, naturally, the fact that you grew up unsupervised had some…startling changes in your development as a Kryptonian…" Zod claimed.

"What do you mean?" Lelouch wondered, mind working in overdrive as he tried to pick apart Zod's words. Could he have suddenly mutated over the years, developed cancer, was he even Kryptonian, even?

"It's hard to say without a full scan of your body, but the scans that I've made so far of your body show that some of the genes in your DNA differ from a Kryptonians," said Zod. "Normally, this isn't so surprising, as, even now what remains of your human DNA is being converted into Kryptonian…however; these abnormal genes that I've detected are completely different than what is found in both human and Kryptonian DNA. Kryptonian DNA has three specific gene types not found in human DNA, and yet, these new genes in your DNA are something that has only been seen by Kryptonian eyes in a few rare species. One of those genes is found in a native species on the planet of Krypton that was extinct long before the Black Zero war."

"I…see," Lelouch said slowly, sounding as stressed as he felt. Lelouch didn't appreciate the sympathetic expression that this Zod looked at him with.

"Much of the nature of the science eludes me," Zod admitted, with a self-depreciating shrug and hapless smile. "I'm a warrior, not a scientist. This is Jor-El and Zor-El's area of expertise, not mine."

"Who are Jor-El and Zor-El?" Lelouch picked up on the names. They sounded important; at the very least they were important enough for this Zod to mention them in a mostly casual conversation.

Zod gave a long suffering sigh, his expression falling into a look of exhaustion.

"Jor-El and Zor-El were Zod's best friends growing up on Krypton," the AI began turning away to pace back to the main console. "From an early age, Zod knew that he would be the one following Jor-El and Zor-El as the two led the Krypontian people to a brighter future…though, as with all things; there were a few bumps along the way that strained their friendships…"

Lelouch recognized the tone in the man's voice; it was the same way the Japanese sounded when they talked about their destroyed civilization and ruined national pride. Zod was reminiscing to another time, a better time.

"What happened?" Lelouch asked. Zod turned around, a mask in place.

"Do not worry about it, my son," Zod stated, brushing the matter aside. "It's in the past, and I do not wish to burden you with the follies of my creators." It was an obvious dismissal, but Lelouch was fine with letting the matter drop. Zod had been mostly benevolent so far, Lelouch didn't want to put stress on such a new and fragile friendship.

"Alright, go on," Lelouch stated, waving for Zod to continue his discussion.

"Long before the destruction of Krypton, when we had only just learned how to travel between galaxies, we came across a little blue world in a neighboring galaxy. This world was populated by primitive humanoids. Our Kryptonian Ancestors who found this little blue planet discovered that these humanoids were genetically compatible with the Kryptonian DNA. Because of this discovery, some of the scientists in the explorer's group decided to remain on the planet and try and advance this race of humanoids through selective breeding and the inter-breeding of the Kryptonian bloodline through the gene pool. It was these humanoids and the ancestors of the Kryptonian people that saw the evolution of modern day man…" Zod explained. To his credit, Lelouch didn't physically show how shocked he was by what he had just learned.

"It was for this reason that, when the hour of judgment came for the Kryptonian people and their home world, Jor-El, Zor-El and myself decided to send our heirs to this planet," Zod claimed. This time, Lelouch's mouth actually did fall open.

"What?"

"There were four of you: Kal-El, Kara Zor-El, Raya Dax-Ur, and yourself. Out of the four, Raya has gone missing, and you were just samples of genetic material from General Dru-Zod and his wife Ursa-Zod," the AI explained.

"There were four of us…and one went missing?" Lelouch exclaimed, nearly shouting as he locked onto what the computer said. Zod nodded grimly.

"Indeed. Though I have studied all the transmission signals all throughout this Solar System and its neighbors, I have found no hint as to Raya's presence," Zod sighed, looking away from Lelouch with a sad expression. "It was a shame, too. Raya had such promise."

"Raya…who was Raya; you talk like you – like Zod knew her well," Lelouch pointed out. Zod looked back at his ward regretfully.

"She was a brilliant young woman with a great future before her, only overshadowed by her best friend Kara's own future..." Zod explained.

"So Raya was a woman…so it stands to reason that Kara was, too," Lelouch thought aloud. Zod smiled and nodded. Seeing that, Lelouch shut his eyes, groaning. "Please don't tell me that Kara and Raya was supposed to be Kal-El's and my mates…"

"Unfortunately, I cannot comply with that request. For the best chance of the survival of the Kryptonian species, it was decided that two males and two females would travel to Earth. At the time, you were merely genetic material, so it was only wishful thinking on our part that someone would find you and see your creation. We never accounted for one of the females to go missing…" Zod said sadly.

"Zod, I'm going to ask you something, and I hope that you don't think ill of me...but please tell me Raya was the one supposed to be my mate…" he pleaded. Zod sighed and shook his head in a negative.

"I cannot," Zod said, dashing the boy's fervent hopes. "Though the Kryptonian species was several thousand years up the evolution ladder than humanity, unfortunately, inbreeding is still damaging to our DNA. It was calculated though that the differences that would exist between your DNA and a Kryptonians would allow for enough differences in your offspring with Kara that the child of Kal-El and Raya Dax-Ur would be able to copulate with and reproduce a healthy and powerful heir."

Lelouch tried to absorb the answer from a detached standpoint, but just ended up hyperventilating. Lelouch wasn't aware that he was moving until klaxon alarms began to sound in the Fortress. It was with a start that Lelouch realized that his body was vibrating so fast that he was literally setting the frigid arctic air alight.

"Breathe, Lal-Zod; try to slow your heart rate. Take nice and deep breaths," Zod instructed, and Lelouch became aware of the fact that the whole Fortress was glowing red, and not just because of the super-heated air.

After calming himself, the red lights in the Fortress faded to the natural light he was used to. Quickly, the melted puddle he was standing in began to freeze, so Lelouch did a short hop onto the stronger and more stable icy shelf.

"Unfortunately, we can't account for every difference in your powers," Zod stated, looking keenly at his heir now. "It is one thing to move faster than the speed of sound, but it is entirely another to vibrate your entire body to the point that you set the air itself aflame. This is a curious development indeed…" Zod mused.

"What?" Lelouch wondered. Zod shrugged his concern aside.

"Never mind; it isn't important at the moment." Zod eyed Lelouch for a few minutes, before asking, "I trust that you've managed to regain control of your warring emotions, my son?"

(Sorry, never finished it.)


End file.
